


Fangs and Muzzles

by PrinceofBadassery



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, lots of fluff, the literal kind as well, vampire!Tony, werewolf!Bucky
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-26
Updated: 2018-04-18
Packaged: 2018-08-27 06:21:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 30
Words: 47,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8390551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrinceofBadassery/pseuds/PrinceofBadassery
Summary: Tony was still trying to adjust to his new life as vampire after Obie had infected him several years ago in the hope to get him out of his company. It had backfired though and Tony was still here, although he had almost completely avoided any social life, hiding instead in his mansion. Here he could work on his invention and when the Avengers were needed he still had his suit. His peaceful routine was interrupted when one night his defenses were torn apart by a feral werewolf. Knowing vampires and werewolf didn't get along very well, Tony prepared for the worst, he didn't expect an oversized puppy wagging his tail.-----------Set after Avengers 1 and before Cap 2. I imagine the team temporarily lived with Tony in his mansion close to New York before the Tower was finished.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by an awesome piece of art by Beir on tumblr. http://beir.tumblr.com/post/150577021263/kirastain-replied-to-your-post

Tony turned around with his chair and pushed himself off his desk rolling across . The alarm was blearing and Tony was annoyed. Normally the alarm was going off and then immediately stopped again as whoever dared to enter his property was turned away by the warning shots from his automated turrets. 

It hadn't stopped though and Tony was worried this was a full-blown assault. The genius inventor had made lots of enemies over time, willingly and not so willingly, including people in his own company. He wouldn't put it past them to try and get rid of him with more violent means than complotting against him in business meetings. Ever since his unfortunate run in with his surrogate father Obidiah a couple of years ago that changed his life forever. As if being trapped in a cave in Afghanistan for months wasn't enough, no, the person he had trusted the most in his life betrayed him and infected him with the vampiric serum. Stane had hoped it would undermine his ability to run the company and it had almost worked. 

Tony pushed the memories aside and gestured with his hands over the table, blue screens appeared in mid air,  
When JARVIS brought up the sourvailance camera footage from outside Tony was surprised to see a huge black animal attacking one of his turrets, tearing into it with such ferocity sparks were flying. It had the size of a bear but was much leaner.... Could it be? 

Tony could only wonder about what exactly was destroying his defense system for a few moments when the animal turned and leaped, chomping down on the camera. The last thing Tony saw was a mouthfull of sharp teeth. 

"J." Tony simply said and his AI responded immediately.

"The suit is ready, Sir." 

It took all of thirty seconds for Tony to put the suit on and fly out of the mansion. JARVIS guided him to the edge of his vast property where the intruding animal was wrecking havoc. He told JARVIS to turn off the turrets. Once in range he fired a warning shot in front of it as it was dodging bullets from the next turret he was attacking. The beast was fast, incredibly fast, and now that Tony got a closer look he also knew why.  
That was a werewolf. And a big one too.

Whoever sent it probably thought it was enough to overwhelm the young vampire, but they hadn't counted on the Iron Man suit. Tony might not be a very strong vampire as he had only been turned a couple of years ago, but he still had his suits from before and he still improved upon them. The wolf had stopped tearing into the machinery and had turned to look at him, Tony prepared another shot but halted, maybe it would run away, now that it saw who it was up against. Then Tony noticed something else.

Was the werewolf wagging its tail? 

\-----

The smell was here. The delicious smell, almost covered by oil and metal but it was definitly here. The asset turned around and it didn't take long to see the flying machine just a few meters away. 

He was eagerly awaiting commands. The people who had owned him previously had been called handler, so he adapted the name. This was his new handler, he decided. He didn't decide often, others decided for him most of the time. During the mission three nights ago something has happened. He had been hit with a blast and when he woke back up his head hadn't been fuzzy anymore. There was no red tinge to his vision and then he had smelled it. The smell that had compelled him to abandon his handlers and search for it.

The person was also a vampire but this didn't bother the asset. He had killed a lot of vampires in the past but they were stronger than this one. They all had smelled really bad and he was glad to get rid of them. This one will need his protection.

The nice smell got stronger when the flying machine opened a plate and he could see the face of the person.

"Sit."

This was a command he could follow, very easy. He sat down and waited again. His broken front leg hurt where it was connected, but this also didn't matter, he tried not to put weight on it. After the fight with the machines he was exhausted, but he needed to keep going. The wounds under his thick coat were still bleeding sluggishly and he was close to passing out. His handler was here now.

The flying machine landed in front of him and he let out a soft whine, he wanted to get closer, but he had been told to sit. 

"They didn't tell me about this in Vampire 101..." The person scoffed and the asset turned his head. 

"You look almost cute."

The wolf whined again.

"Aw fuck. I'm going to regret this. You don't want to kill me, do you? I'm pretty sure werewolfs can't put up an act, something about being led by their instincts." 

The asset lay down, putting his head on his front paws and letting out a soft whine. He tried to not look threatening. He didn't want to kill his new handler.

\--------

JARVIS adviced against it, but he argured if he kept on the armor for now nothing would happen. This werewolf was different. He knew how werewolfs acted normally, all growly and flashing teeth. This one acted more like a dog that wanted to be petted. Maybe he wasn't too far off. 

Tony's vision was perfect in the dark, thanks to the vampiric serum and so he took a closer look with the faceplate open.

When he had landed in front of the werewolf, it lifted his head a little and he could see the light grey eyes. They stood in stark contrast to the long almost black fur that covered the rest of its body. Well, almost all of his body, Tony noticed. It was almost invisible under the dirt, grime and long hair, but the wolf had a front leg made of metal. A werewolf with a prosthethis, how strange. That must make shifting very difficult, if not impossible. He also noticed how matted and dirty his fur was, which further supported his theory. It takes months for hair to mat like this. Overall the werewolf looked pitiful, Tony could also smell blood on him.

"You're gonna be a good boy?" 

One soft bark, good enough, Tony thought.

"Come along then." 

The wolf got up, still wagging his tail. He didn't use the metal leg and held it off the ground. Maybe it was broken, was that the reason the werewolf came here? 

Tony flew ahead, a couple of feet of the ground, ready if the werewolf was going to pounce on him after all, but it happily ran alongside him, keeping up easily, even with three legs.

He led them to the patio, not trusting the beast in his lab and told JARVIS to unlock the door. 

"Sit." He told the wolf as he landed and was again surprised when it followed his command. It looked expectantly at him, panting from the exertion. 

"I really hope you're housebroken." 

The werewolf made noise that sounded an awful lot like a huff. Tony shook his head, it was hard to imagine that the animal had an almost human like intelligence. Werewolfs retained almost all of their intelligence when shifting to their wolf form, that much Tony knew. He also knew that most werewolfs can't shift outside of the full moon and today's moon was only a small sliver in the night sky 

Tony let them both into his living room. The wolf immediately started to sniff the ground and very quickly came across the couch, where it spend some time sniffing the exact spot Tony used to sit when he was relaxing. 

"Sofa is off limits." Tony warned and the wolf gave him a pitiful look but trotted off towards the fireplace. It wasn't a real fireplace, but rather a heater and a holographic projection. It looked real enough and was a lot less work. 

"JARVIS, turn on the fireplace, get our new friend comfortable."

"Of course, Sir."

The fireplace came to life and the wolf stared at it for a moment before walking in a few circles and then lying down in front of it.

Tony kept the Iron Man suit on when he walked towards the kitchen to get a bowl with water and maybe some food for his house guest. Being such a young vampire Tony could still eat real food and didn't have to rely on blood alone and he was glad for that. He had noticed that his taste had changed a little after being turned and he prefered his steaks a little rawer now. 

He picked up a big cut of meat from the fridge and put it on a plate then went back to the living room with the plate and the bowl of water. The werewolf was still in front of the fireplace but was now lying on his side, legs stretched out and eyes closed. The metal leg was now in plain view and Tony could see that it was at a weird angle. 

Tony placed the food a few feet away then took off the armor. When the wolf trusted him enough to fall asleep in his house then maybe he had nothing to fear from it.


	2. Chapter 2

Tony spent the next hour lounging on the couch and watching his guest sleep. He had his tablet on his knees and had read some information on werewolfs, trying to understand the wolf's strange behaviour towards him. Especially the fact that he was so docile even though Tony was a vampire had him confused. He read articles on werewolves written by werewolves, written by vampires, by humans, even witches. He had found a few records of vampire-werewolf friendships in the darkest depths of some internet forums, but it wasn't very common and if it happened they usually kept it a secret. All in all he hadn't found much that explained why the wolf was acting like a little puppy. Quite the contrary, there was an overbearing amount of evidence that werewolfs and vampires didn't get along at all.

At least in another aspect the genius had been successful. He had found some information that might explain why the werewolf could shift outside of the fullmoon. Science had advanced a lot in the recent decades not only for humans but for magical creatures alike (Tony despised thinking about himself as such, he was a man of sciene after all, he prepared non-human species). He had known about meds that helped vampires, made them tolerate sunlight better or suppresed the urge to drink blood. He had no need for those (yet). There were similar drugs for werewolfs. They mainly focused on making shifting easier, letting them sleep through a shift even. And those were just the legal ones. Who knew what was going on on the black market though. If you could get vampiric serum, as Obie had done, anything was possible.

The werewolf was still sleeping peacefully in front of the fireplace. Tony put his tablet aside and got up. He slowly approached the sleeping wolf. 

"Sir, may I advice against whatever you are trying to do?"

"Nah, J, this puppy has been nothing but docile. I just want to take a closer look at it and that leg." Tony knew it wasn't a smart idea, but he was naturally curious and for some reason he was certain that the wolf wouldn't harm him. There was also the strange sweet smell of blood in his nostrils and it bothered him to no end.

JARVIS made a displeased noise but kept quiet.

Tony kneeled down next to the wolf and gave him a slow once over. The mats in its fur looked bad. It was also caked in dirt and had deposited quite a bit of it onto the carpet where it was lying.

It felt weird calling the wolf an 'it' all the time and Tony made the brazen decision to remedy that problem. Not like he could ask right now and if the wolf shifted back he wanted to know if he was going to see a naked man or a naked woman. So Tony very carefully and feeling very intruding took a hold of the wolfs back leg and lifted it just a tiniest bit, taking a quick look and then putting it back down.

"Congrats, it's a boy." Tony said, still feeling weird that he had just looked at some guy's genitals. 

He tried to distract himself by getting a closer look at the guy's metal front leg. Pushing some of the long fur aside at the shoulder he saw that the thing had been surgically connected to his body. There were angry red scars running all across his shoulder, where it was connected and his fur was patchy all around it. Tony wondered if he was able to shift at all with this thing. 

When he carefully petted the fur back down he noticed something else, at the werewolfs neck. Tony lifted the fur carefully as there was a huge mat covering most of it and he knew those were quite painful. He couldn't believe what he saw. 

The guy was wearing a collar. 

Werewolfs never wore collars, as far as he knew, because they refused to be owned. Maybe if it had been a normal leather collar, maybe something decorative, it would have made sense, but this one was clearly made out of steel and when Tony tried to get his fingers under it, it was impossible. It was so tight it was flush with the skin. 

The werewolf had lost most of his fur were the collar was and his skin was badly irritated. There were small containers embedded in it that were full of liquid. One of them was broken and empty another one had a small picture of a skull on it. Tony's fingers traced the wolfs jugglar vein and was almost certain the collar was directly connected to it somehow.

This werewolf was owned by somebody. Somebody who went to great lengths to keep him under control. He wouldn't be surprised if he found drugs in the containers that kept his own will suppressed. Tony had to get this off of him. 

He traced the collar around further down, feeling something imprinted into the metal. 

"Asset." He mumbled as he carefully took a peek.

"I don't think that's your name..." 

Feeling for the poor guy he carefully petted the side of his face and was surprised to see the wolf's eyes open and looking at him. He hadn't moved one bit while Tony had been touching him, how long had he been awake? 

Tony froze completely, keeping his hand where it was on the wolf's face, not knowing what he should do. The suit was half-way across the room and he was certain if the wolf wanted he could bite off his arm in an instant.

He was sure he had a heart attack when the wolf's tongue sneaked out and licked his wrist tentatively and he heard a soft whine coming from under his hand.

"You really don't want to hurt me, do you?"

Another whine, more pitiful this time. 

"Is it okay if I touch you?" Tony's hand was on the wolf's face already, but he felt the need to ask anyway.

The wolf closed his eyes and his head lulled back a little exposing his throat more. Tony took it as a yes and started stroking the soft fur again. The face was the only place where his fur wasn't tangled and matted. If the wolf's state was anything to go by then the guy hadn't had anything good happen to him in a long time.

"I saw the collar." Tony said softly. "I think I can remove it, if you let me." He became a little bolder and stroked down the wolf's side, avoiding the shoulder where the metal leg was connected. "I don't know how much you know about me or if you just stumbled in here by accident, but I'm somewhat of genius and can basically fix anything, including that leg of yours." 

The wolf let out a soft bark and Tony wasn't sure if that was a sensitive topic he had just brought up or if the other wanted his help.

"Sorry, I don't speak wolf very well..." 

This made the wolf lift his head a little to look at Tony and then he started wagging his tail. It made thuds on the carpet whenever it hit the floor.

"Okay, that's more obvious. I don't know if you're up to it already, but that collar doesn't look good. I'd like to take it off as soon as possible."

The huge mass of fur shifted underneath his hand as the wolf got up, soon towering over Tony's sitting form. 

"Yes, right now, of course." Tony hurried to get up, not liking that the animal was taller than him, but even when he stood the wolf's back still reached to his waist. The added height of the suit had given him a totally faulty perspective. 

The wolf was standing in front of the food Tony had brought him, he had his head lowered and he was staring at the bowl of water. Tony walked around and frowned. Maybe he had misjudged werewolf etiquette? He had even looked it up, werewolfs did drink out of bowls when shifted and ate raw meat. 

"Something wrong?" Tony was concerned. The wolf -he had to get a name out of this guy soon - looked up at him with those grey eyes and licked his lips.

"I mean, it's just plain water but the steak is top quality. I'll eat it myself if you don't want -" Tony broke off when the wolf suddenly chowed down on the steak and teared it apart as if he'd been starving.

"Oh-kay." Tony mumbled and sat down on the couch, watching as the ravished animal tore into the food. 

"What have people done to you that you need to ask permission to eat food that's been placed in front of you?" 

The wolf had eaten the steak within a minute and was now licking the bowl of water clean, then he trotted over to Tony, standing in front of him, his head hanging low. Tony reached out and petted the wolf's neck carefully.

"Come on, let's get some more food into you." Tony got up, keeping a hand on the wolf's side, considering the wolf's height that wasn't exactly difficult. He led them both to the kitchen, the werewolf kept close to him, like he didn't want to leave Tony. 

When Tony went to the fridge again he sat patiently next to him. Tony got another two steaks, holding them out to the canine, who was wagging his tail again but didn't make a move to take them. 

"When I put out raw meat on a plate, it's for you. You understand? You don't have to wait for me to tell you to eat it." 

The wolf barked softly.

"Now... Take it, but don't you dare bite me." 

It was fascinating to watch an animal with inch long fangs move so slowly. The wolf barely opened his maw, just enough to take the edge of the steak between his teeth and hold it there. 

Tony let go and the wolf started eating, holding the steak down on the ground with his one functioning front paw, while he ripped it apart.

"Good boy."


	3. Chapter 3

Tony took the werewolf down to his lab not feeling concerned about the wolf's intention anymore. JARVIS might not have agreed but Tony didn't care. 

"Welcome to my lab." Tony said with a flourish as they stepped into the wide room. The lights turned on immediately, illuminating the long workbenches filled with all kinds of inventions, most of them unfinished. 

"Take a look around, get comfortable, revel in my genius. It's gonna take me a hot minute to get some scanners ready." 

The wolf barked softly and wandered off, rounding the tables. He was tall enough to look over them without a problem, Tony watched him walk around, occasionally sniffing on something before moving on to the next thing.

Tony pulled up a few holographic screens and started typing away, he wanted to gather as much information on the collar as possible before he attempted to remove it. He had the suspicion it wasn't going to be easy and there would be more than one fail safe. But if he was lucky, the collar might have only been rigged in the case the wolf was going to take it off himself not if somebody with hands and tools got to it. 

"Hey, Furball, get over here." Tony called once he was ready and the wolf came running, apparently taking to the nickname. 

"Lie down here, please, on your side." He stroked the wolf's head as he lied down like before and then kneeled beside him. 

"Not going to hurt you, alright, first step is to take some scans so I know what I am up against." 

The wolf only made a pitiful noise and closed his eyes, apparently surrendering to whatever Tony was going to do. The amount of trust the wolf put in him gave Tony an uneasy feeling, not exactly being used to it.

In the end the collar turned out ot be incredibly simple. It was only rigged to release the poison when somebody tried to break it and didn't release the opening mechanism. Tony gathered a couple of tools and went to work on the lock. He was so concentrated on his work, not wanting to get anything wrong, that it took him several minutes to notice that the wolf was shaking. 

He was trembling, eyes squeezed shut and Tony panicked. Had he accidently released the poison?

The scans showed nothing. 

"Hey, hey, I'm not gonna hurt you, everything is fine." Tony spoke softly, carefully touching the wolf's cheek and petting him. He quickly realized if it wasn't the poison it was most likely a panic attack. It fit into the pattern. The collar had to get on the wolf somehow, most likely by people who hadn't been kind to him. Having someone work on it again probably triggered something. 

Tony spoke to him softly, murmuring assuring words, all the while stroking his fur. Eventually the wolf calmed down and opened his eyes, whining softly.

"Hey buddy, welcome back. I almost got the collar off, just a moment longer okay?" Tony scratched behind the wolf's ears and smiled down at him. The werewolf tried to lick his free hand that had been resting next to his head, but it was just out of reach. 

"Need that hand, you can lick me later, alright?" Tony patted the wolf's head, chuckling, then went back to work. He hadn't been lying when he said he had it almost off. The lock was open after another minute and with some careful manipulation the collar came off and with it the needle that had been stuck in the wolf's vein. Tony pulled it out from under the wolf's neck and threw it aside, making is slide along the floor and land in a corner. The vile thing had to go.

The tiny wound was bleeding a little bit and Tony's senses went haywire. Without even realizing what he was doing he picked up the little red dot with his finger and put it in his mouth.

His mind exploded. It was the most delicious thing Tony had tasted ever since he had been turned into a vampire. A small part of him was disgusted by himself, for having to drink blood at all and now doing it willingly. Another part of him asked why werewolf blood was so tasty and nobody told him yet, another more realistic part argued back that the general consensus about werewolf blood was that it was disgusting and was a total disgrace to drink even in emergencies.

Tony sighed and dropped his hand. 

He was glad he wasn't at the point where he lost control and started ravishing whatever was before him because he smelled a bit of blood. 

The wolf hadn't noticed. He had closed his eyes and his breathing had become regular again, it almost looked like he had fallen asleep.

"Hey sleepyhead, the collar is off, how do you feel about that?" Tony scratched behind the wolf's ear then his hand traveled upwards and he played with the tuft of longer fur on the tip of the ear, it looked adorable really, why hadn't he noticed that earlier? 

"If you can hold still a little longer I can take some scans of your leg and see if I can fix it." 

The wolf's tail was going haywire again and he rolled on his back to offer his belly, tongue lolling out of his mouth. Tony lost no time to scratched the soft fur on his belly, laughing wholeheartedly. This guy really was just an oversized puppy.

Tony could work with how he was lying now and just took scans of the leg while he scratched the big furball's belly. What he found was intriguing. It looked like there was whole second leg or rather another arm inside the metal leg. He could see parts of fingers and different plating just underneath what was visible now.

"Interesting. So you can shift with this, really fascinating." Tony started to tinker with it, opening up some of the plating and having a look inside. "If it's not broken that is. Looks like some wiring is fried. Did you get shocked recently?" 

The wolf barked softly and Tony scowled.

"Sorry to hear that." He gently scratched behind the wolf's ear, offering some comfort. "I'm gonna fix it, I promise." He gritted through his teeth.

Tony was angry, really angry. Whoever did this to this werewolf was going to pay, big time. It wouldn't be easy, this was some highly developed tech, this wasn't a single person, not unless it was someone of his genius and financial magnitude. He made a mental note to get JARVIS to investigate, he'd take apart the collar, analyze the drugs and see if he could get a track. Tony also hoped to get some information out of Furball when he shifted back, if he was in any state to give information.

They stayed in the lab until dawn, Tony eventually leaned back against the wolf's chest while he worked on the leg/arm combination for hours. He had to replace several wires and work out some kinks with the shifting mechanism. Occasionally he would reach out and scratch the wolf's ear and head when he twitched as response to something Tony did. Tony didn't know if he was causing him pain, he desperately hoped not, but he figured it must at the very least be uncomfortable.

He would have continued working well into the next day wanting to get the leg in perfect condition, but when he not only heard the wolf's stomach rumble but also felt it against his back he called it quits. The shifting mechanism was fixed, he could do maintenance later.

Tony replaced the metal plates on the leg and got up, working the kinks out of his back and neck. The wolf made a good pillow but sitting on the floor had left him stiff.

"Come on, Furball, get up and try it. Should work and if you want to shift you can now."

The wolf rolled onto his front and stretched as well before slowly testing his leg, touching it to the ground carefully. He took a few steps and walked in a circle around the lab, then without warning he got up on his hind legs in front of Tony and lunged. 

Tony could barely reacted before he had a sloppy wolf tongue on his face. A second later he ended back on the floor with 300 pound of wolf on top of him. All Tony could do was laugh.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am seriously overwhelmed with how much people like this story! Thank you all so much!
> 
> This is probably the chapter most of you were waiting for. Hope I didn't disappoint.

Tony stumbled into the kitchen. 

It was early afternoon and he had spent another couple of hours trimming the mats out of Furball's fur after the wolf had released him from his licking attack early this morning. He had left the werewolf in the living room in front of the fireplace where he had curled up with another steak. Then Tony had taken a long shower to get all the drool off his face and out of his hair. 

It had taken a long time for him to fall asleep, he couldn't let go of his tablet to do some more research and JARVIS had to shut everything off after another hour and forced him to close his eyes.

Now he needed coffee, desperately, and some blood, but that could wait. Even if he was a vampire now Tony couldn't let go of his coffee, it always came first. 

After he had a cup of both he checked the fridge for some breakfast and made himself some eggs and bacon. He was running dangerously low on raw meat with only a couple minute steaks and a porkchop left. Groceries weren't delivered until tomorrow evening, which meant he would have to go out to get his guest some food. 

He glanced at the clock and figured he still had a couple of hours until nightfall. He liked to go out at dawn, sunlight didn't bother him as much but he liked to avoid it and he despised to fulfill the vampire cliché and go out at night. 

"Sir, your guest is awake." JARVIS suddenly announced and almost immediately Tony sensed a presence in the kitchen. 

"Furball!" He twirled around, pan in hand and almost dropped it immediately.

Instead of the expected furry wolf he had come to know there was a naked man standing in his kitchen, looking bewildered and completely lost. 

The only thing that remained of the thick dark fur was his long hair of the same color that hung into his face. 

"Hey." Tony said after he had recovered from his initial schock, smiling. Of course the werewolf would shift back now that he was able to. He noticed that the metal leg was now a metal arm, on first glance it seemed like everything had worked. To Tony's surprise the man still had his wolf ears with the long tuffts on the tips. They were currently pressed so close to his head Tony almost hadn't noticed. 

Matching the ears there was also a fluffy tail, but Tony didn't dare take a closer look, he was sure he had already looked at the guy's genitals enough. What he also noticed, and it broke his heart all over again, were the scars all over the man's body

"Take a seat, I just made breakfast, unless you want the porkchop in the fridge." 

Furball, he needed another name desperately, walked over to the counter and sat down on one of the stools, ears still flat on his head. 

Tony knew the other was scared, it was probably his first shift in months that he even remembered how to walk on two legs was a good sign. Tony plated up the eggs and bacon and put it in front of the man, then got him a fork as well. The man was shaking, keeping his head down and not meeting his eyes. Tony walked around the counter and decided to just try something to ease the other man, he reached up and scratched him behind his ears like he had done just hours earlier when he was still in his wolfform. 

"It's alright, Furball, take your time." Tony could feel the tension subside a little and the trembling stopped, he kept petting him a little while longer, when the man leaned into his touch. It was only when he felt that the werewolf was calmer and his breathing was regular that Tony pulled back a little, keeping a hand on the other's back

"I'll leave you alone for a moment and get you some clothes, yeah, I'll be right back."

The man nodded a little jerkily, like he was trying to remember how humans communicated and Tony left to gather some clothes. He had expected that the guy was a little on the taller side judging from how huge his wolf form was. Luckily he still had some of Steve's clothes around from when the team had lived in the mansion and he was sure they would fit him. 

When he came back to the kitchen he placed the sweatpants and sweater onto the counter next to the werewolf and gave him another scratch before he went to make himself another batch of eggs and bacon. The other man was holding the fork awkwardly but ate the food Tony had given him. It put a smile on Tony's face. 

The bacon was grilling and Tony leaned onto the counter, propping his chin on his face. 

"Can you speak?" Tony asked carefully.

The other man chewed carefully and swallowed before he looked up and opened his mouth, then immediately closed it again. Tony saw that he still had longer canine teeth almost like a vampires. His ears twitched when he swallowed again and his face crunched up in concentration. 

"Yes." He said eventually. The word was strained and sounded painful coming from the other's throat. Tony quickly brought him a glas of water and put it in front of him.

"Take it slow. How long were you shifted?" 

The werewolf gulped down the water greedily, he used his right hand, keeping the metal one on his lap. Tony wondered if he was just not used to it anymore or if there was still something wrong with it. 

"Six..." The werewolf said, his voice sounded a little bit better.

"Six weeks?" 

"Moons." 

Half a year. Tony swallowed hard. He hadn't expected it to have been that long.

"What's your name?" 

The other man shook his head and gestured to his throat which was still irritated from the collar, Tony first thought he wasn't able to talk anymore but then he penny dropped. 

"Asset?" Tony asked in disbelief. "You can't be serious." 

The man ducked his head, his hair falling in front of his face, and Tony immediately regretted that he raised his voice, but he was furious. He had thought the werewolf was in a bad state when he was in his wolf form but this was even worse, since he seemed even more confused now. 

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell. I just want to know what happened to you. Nobody deserves to be treated like this. And I can't call you Asset, no way, that's not a name. Who was it that called you that?"

The werewolf was shaking, his ears almost invisible in his dark hair the way he had pressed them against his head, his face a mixture of confusion and panic. 

"Handlers." 

Tony decided to not question the poor guy further, he knew what it looked like when someone was close to panicking and he reached out to touch the other's head. In this state he wasn't to get anything out of him. 

"It's okay. I just have one last question. What made you come to me?"

This time the werewolf looked up and for the first time he looked like he knew the answer. There was a sparkle in his eyes and his ears twitched up.

"You smell good."

\--------

It was so hard. Thinking in words when you only had instincts for so long. His body was so different and right now he felt every little scratch. The shift hadn't been easy after so long he had barely managed to achieve a human form. The collar had prevented him from shifting he knew that, he didn't know how though. 

Something had happened three days ago that had broken something. He knew he had been on a mission and he had gotten hit by something. After that there had only been the Smell. And this human had taken such good care of him. Had fixed his leg - arm - and removed the collar, had even taken care of his fur. 

He tried his best to answer the questions his human had, but he knew so little and what he knew was hard to put into words. He barely remembered how his human body worked, getting up on his feet had taken him several minutes and using a fork was even worse. 

He didn't know, he just didn't know anything. 

He just wanted to help his human but he couldn't. 

The Asset whined, no, not Asset, his human had said that wasn't his name. 

He wrecked his brain for a name but all he could remember was what his human had said himself. 

Furball.

He was Furball now. 

His human scratched behind his ear again and he leaned into the touch.


	5. Chapter 5

Tony stuck him under the shower first. 

He had considered bathing the wolf if he had stayed shifted longer but getting a human clean was probably easier and it would hopefully help Furball adjust a little more. Tony wasn't able to get anything out of him after that, he seemed still a little stuck in his wolf mannerisms and he couldn't really blame the werewolf.

Tony went back to the living room and ordered the robots to clean the dirt in front of the fireplace while he waited for the other man to finish his shower. 

It took over an hour until the werewolf wandered into the living room now wearing Steve's clothes and looking a little better. His hair was still wet and hang in strands around his face. He looked around the room more curious then frightened this time. Tony was surprised how young he was, he couldn't be more than 25. He was also gorgeous despite the exhaustion still present on his face.

"Hey there."

Furball turned to him and took a couple of steps closer but instead of coming to Tony to sit on the couch, he sat down on the floor in front of the fireplace. Tony couldn't believe that he stilled called the man by the nickname but it had somehow stuck.

"You have questions." The man said slowly.

His voice sounded so much better than earlier and it was the first time Tony had heard the man say more than one word, but he sounded scared and tried to hide it that much was clear. He had crossed his legs and had his hands in his lap, covering his metal one with his flesh and blood one. His shoulders were slumped and his head lowered like he didn't dare look at Tony. His tail was curled around him.

"I do... " Tony shifted to get more comfortable and cleared his throat. "But let me be clear, I don't expect answers. I don't know what you've been through or were you came from but I want to figure it out with you."

The werewolf perked up a little and glanced at Tony through his hair, still uncertain. 

"Just tell me what you know, there is no right or wrong." Tony continued and the werewolf's ears twitched upwards a little. 

"What did you do before you came here?" 

The man licked his lips and his eyes darted to and fro not focusing on anything until after a couple of long seconds he spoke again.

"I was on a mission."

"A mission?" Mission, handlers, it sounded more and more like the werewolf was part of some special ops team. 

"They bring me with a... a big car - a van - " The man struggled with the words. "They drop me off and I follow the scent... They give me a scent...clothing - objects." 

"And then?" Tony asked carefully, already imagining where it that was going.

"I ... kill." 

Cold sweat ran down Tony's back and he was slightly shaking, remembering what the man had said in the kitchen and how he had violently attacked his turrets only a day ago.

"Was it my scent?" 

"No!" The werewolf looked up, eyes wide, shaking his head. "No... no... not your smell." The man leaned forward, curling up on himself, his tail wrapping around him and his ears flat on his head like he was trying to make himself as small as possible.

"You smell good. They smell bad... they are bad people... They all smelled bad, but I had to do it.... I don't know why, my head was fuzzy and I was so angry. All I knew I had to eliminate the scent that they showed to me."

The words were muffled but Tony understood only too well, he slowly got up and sat down next to the curled up man, very carefully touching his head and stroking his hair between his ears.

"What made you change your mind?" 

The body trembled under his hand but the werewolf moved his arm just enough that his face peeked out again.

"There were lots of buildings, the scent was everywhere, I had a trouble getting to it, people were protecting it and ... I don't know what happened but suddenly everything hurt. My arm hurt the most." He moved his right hand to hold his left shoulder. 

"Couldn't use it anymore, but... when I woke up my head felt better. It wasn't -" He licked his lips, searching for the word, Tony waited patiently. " - fuzzy, confused anymore. The buildings were burning, everything was destroyed, I didn't know what to do until -" 

"- you smelled me" Tony still stroked the man's head and felt him nod under his fingers. His mind was reeling from what the werewolf was telling him. The guy was an assassin, a werewolf assassin, trained to track people down and murder them and from what it sounded like he had been forced to do it against his will. Something must have gone horribly wrong on his last mission, ending in a fire, maybe even an explosion. If he could figure out what the werewolf had attacked maybe he could figure out who was behind it. 

Tony asked a couple of more questions, slowly getting more information out of the guy. Tony knew he wouldn't be able to give him an address but he could describe it well enough and an excessive fire or explosion was bound to be noticed by someone even if it was covered up. The only problem was that he didn't know how far away it was. Furball - there was that name again - told him he had been running three days and nights, occasionally passing out from exhaustion and pain, but it was hard to gauge how much distance the werewolf could have covered in that time. 

Not taking his hand off of the werewolf's head Tony fished for his tablet on the couch and started typing with the other hand, getting JARVIS to start a general search covering news articles and social media about a fire in a factory or some other big facility with more than one building. He set the radius for 200 miles for the beginning. He entered all the information and assumptions he had so far on what kind of people could have kept Furball drugged and compliant. He'd hack into government files if necessary.

"They called me Winter Soldier sometimes.... Or Winter Wolf, depending on... you know..." Furball said after Tony had asked him if he remembered anything else about himself. "I've always been with them as far as I can remember." His speech had gotten better not only did his voice not sound strained anymore but he also fumbled less with words, formulated whole sentences. Tony took it as a sign that he was recovering. 'As far as I can remember' turned out to be not far at all when Tony asked him if he remembered his childhood and he came up with a blank.

"I have an idea." Tony suddenly said, after he had finished entering all the data. "You don't know who you are, right? Maybe someone else does though." 

Furball lifted his head and looked at him curiously. 

"I mean, you had to come from somewhere." Parents, siblings, friends, maybe even a lover, someone had to know this guy. Tony didn't say it, but someone had had taken the man's whole life away, his whole identity. Instead he said:

"Maybe someone filed a missing person report. If you let me take your picture I can run a search, maybe we'll find out your name and I don't have to call you Furball anymore." Tony laughed softly, scratching behind the guy's ears.

"Furball is good." The man said and got up into a more upright sitting position. Tony was taken aback a little and dropped his hand to his lap.

"Really?"

"You gave it to me."

Tony huffed. "I guess I did, didn't I?" 

The other man nodded and Tony sighed. 

"It's better than Asset, I have to admit, and as a wolf it fits. I just feel for a human that's not a good name." Tony regretted it as soon as he said it, because the other man looked so miserable it broke his heart. 

"I don't... I don't remember my name." He whispered. "I don't remember anything." He glanced up at Tony through the strands of hair that hung into his face, he looked desperate, like he was searching for an answer, for anything. Tony swallowed hard, he knew what the other wanted. He needed something to hold onto, something that was his. 

"Furball it is then." Tony said, trying to sound lighthearted but he wasn't so convinced himself. He couldn't imagine how the other must feel, having escaped torture only because a mission he had been sent on against his will had gone haywire and injured him. After having been treated like the animal the he appeared to be not allowed to shift back to his human form.

Furball had broken his conditioning only to find that he had nothing left and then he had latched onto the only thing he could find. A waft of air that smelled nice.

"Okay, come on, show me your pretty face so I can snap a picture. We're gonna find out who you are, okay?" Tony had never thought about the long term implications that had suddenly presented themselves in front of him. It was a spur of the moment situation when he took in the werewolf the day before, nevertheless he was commited to helping him. 

He scratched behind the guy's ears again and guided his head upwards, then pushed his long hair behind his ears, smiling at him. Furball still looked scared but there was a glimmer of hope in his eyes and his ears perked up.

"Just like that, perfect. You're the model-type, I can tell." Tony quickly grabbed his tablet and took a couple of photos. Furball looked adorable and maybe the name wasn't so bad because he definitely still had fluffy hair and a bit of fur on his ears and tail.

"I'll let JARVIS search databases, we'll go back... you said you were a wolf for 6 months so for now we'll look a year back, if nothing shows up, we'll go further. How old are you?" Tony was already busy typing away on his tablet and only looked up to see Furball shrugging confused. 

"Right... Dumb questions, sorry, by the way have you met JARVIS yet?"

"The voice?" 

"Yeah, he's actually an AI, he's gonna help us. Say hello JARVIS." Tony grinned proudly.

"Hello Sir, Hello Mister Furball, may I suggest also adding height and weight as well as the missing arm to the search parameters?" The british voice came from the ceiling and Furball looked up, more curious than anything else.

"An excellent idea, we'll get results in no time and don't skip those government databases, J." 

"I wouldn't dream of it, Sir." 

Tony chuckled and added the last bits of information and when he glanced up from his tablet he saw something that made his heart flutter a little bit.

Furball had the tiniest smile on his face, the first one since he got here.


	6. Chapter 6

Tony only got up a moment ago, after Furball had settled down and fallen asleep on the carpet. He still wanted to go out and get the man some supplies like clothes and shoes. He figured he didn't need any more meat since the werewolf could now eat regular food and he would just order more for tomorrows delivery. 

He barely put his own shoes on and slipped into his jacket when Furball appeared next to him, virtually silent even barefoot on tiles, and made him jump.

"Holy crap, you scared me." 

Furball flattened his ears against his head and looked down, Tony sighed.

"You want to come with me?" 

A shaky nod came from the werewolf and he shuffled just the tiniest bit closer. Tony reached up and scratched his head like he had done so often now

"It's just gonna be half an hour and you don't even have shoes or decent clothing. Just rest, I'll get you some nice stuff and next time you can come along -" Tony stopped himself when the other pulled away and started to take off his sweater and soon was in the process of pushing his pants down, while Tony only stared.

Within seconds the man was naked again and this time Tony couldn't help but let his gaze run over the man's muscular body, even with the scars he was gorgeous, but it didn't last long.

There was something quite fascinating about the way a werewolf shifted, Tony had to admit. How the fur suddenly grew all over the body, the facial structures changed and muscles shifted under skin. The most fascinating thing was the metal arm though. This amazing piece of engineering had Tony almost breathless as it too shifted in tune with Furball's body, the plates moving about flawlessly, fingers being replaced by claws as the hand transformed into a paw.

Furball stood before him as a wolf now, looking up excitedly, wagging his tail. The werewolf had outsmarted him. Not that Tony didn't enjoy the werewolf's company, quite the contrary was the case he had to admit, but with only two pieces of clothing in total he was wary to let him out of the house. It was fall after all and already quite cold. In his wolf form there was no need for clothes. 

"Alright then..." Tony said slowly, "I guess we're not taking the Ferrari then..." The wolf wasn't going to fit on the passenger seat of the sports car that much was sure, but the Audi convertible would be a bit less suspicious anyway and had back seats. 

They headed to the garage that housed Tony's various cars and it was only when Tony heard the soft wiring of Furball's metal leg that he realized they faced another problem.

A giant werewolf following around a vampire was one thing, a giant werewolf with a metal leg was another. So before they got into the car Tony turned to the wolf. 

"Sit." 

Tony kneeled in front of the werewolf and took a hold of the metal leg, the wolf automatically lifted it for him. 

"I haven't done this in ages so bear with me." One of the skills vampires could acquire with practice was casting glamors or magic holograms as Tony liked to call them. He had used it on occasion to conceal his identity when going out but he doubted he would be able to cast a glamor on the wolf's leg and on himself at the same time, he just didn't have the practice for that. For now the leg was more important as it was a clear identification marker for Furball and whoever had him captured could easily recognize him with it. 

Tony had to concentrate hard to conjure a mirror image of the werewolf's right front leg over his left leg, it only took a few seconds for it to shimmer into existence and Tony grinned to himself. He still got it.

"There you go, how does that look?"

Furball made a surprised noise when he looked at his own leg and then to Tony's surprise tried to bite it. 

"Wowowow, no, don't do that. It's still metal, it just looks different." Tony grabbed the wolf's head and tried to guide it away from his leg.

The werewolf gnawed on his limb for a couple of seconds, realizing he was biting on metal soon enough and let go again, instead sniffing at it. 

"Okay, I admit, that must be confusing for you...but it's just an illusion, nothing has changed." Tony ran a hand through his hair and sighed, he suddenly doubted if it was a good idea to take the wolf with him. He could tell the guy to stay here in clear terms and he would probably do it, but he felt like he would be taking advantage of him that way. He didn't want to be like his previous owners. He didn't want to be his owner at all. 

"Come on, in the car with you, we're going shopping." 

Tony pressed a button on his key to get the top down on the convertible. 

"Backseat." 

Furball didn't need to be told twice and jumped in with one graceful leap. He settled down on the leather seats and got comfortable, he just about filled the entire backseat of the car. 

Tony slipped into the front seat, putting on his sunglasses, before pulling out of the garage and onto the long driveway of the mansion. The sun stood low over the horizon, there were still a couple hours of daylight left but thankfully it was cloudy. 

He drove to one of the smaller neighboring towns using the curvy country roads instead of the busy highway, it only took a few minutes until Tony noticed that Furball had moved and now had his head hanging of the side of the car, tongue lolling out. 

"Having fun back there?" Tony joked and got a couple of happy barks from wolf. He put on some music and enjoyed the ride as well until he pulled into the parking lot of strip mall 20 minutes later. 

If it was even possible the wolf's fur looked even more tangled than before when he jumped out of the car, the wind did a number on him, maybe they could drop by a Petsmart and get some brushes.

"What do you say, clothes or food?" Tony looked around and noticed that his car and the big werewolf jumping out of it had gathered some attention and people were recognizing him. Even after he had very much retreated from public appearances he was still famous or infamous rather, after the incident with Obie and the reveal of Iron Man, but most of all when the news broke that he was a vampire now.

Tony had been so focused on himself and to put his most confident smirk on for the people who had taken out their phones, that he hadn't noticed that Furball had pressed himself against his leg, so tense he was almost vibrating. The werewolf was eyeing the people as well and realization hit Tony that he had never considered how the wolf would react to other people. For a genius Tony felt really stupid sometimes. The werewolf was an assassin for fucks sake.

He put a hand on the wolf's back, holding his breath, fearing the werewolf was going to jump any moment and create a blood bath.

"Sit." 

Furball sat down and Tony breathed again, tragedy avoided. 

"I'm not sure if you're just scared or ready to attack, but I'd appreciate it if you didn't kill anybody." Tony mumbled, petting the wolf's head. As it turned out he didn't need to worry, the werewolf lied down in front of his feet, covering his eyes with his right front paw and let out a pitiful whine. 

"Oh good. I was worried there for a moment." Tony waved to the spectators trying to give them what they wanted so they would soon get bored with him. "Let's just get into the store, they'll go away soon enough. Just stay by my side okay?"

The werewolf got up wagging his tail just the tiniest bit, the guy was more scared than anything else, Tony was sure now. 

Furball trotted along brushing against his leg and hip occasionally as they walked, like he wanted to make certain Tony was still there. 

Tony pointedly ignored the "No dogs allowed" sign at the door as he entered the clothing store with the werewolf at his side.


	7. Chapter 7

"Not a dog." Tony said for the probably 25th time as yet another employee came over who promptly turned around and scurried away again when he recognized the millionaire. People took a detour around the pair, some even made a point to walk out of the door letting everybody know how they felt about the werewolf's presence in the store. Other's weren't quite as bold but still very vocally expressed their annoyance. 

Tony held up another shirt and Furball gave a short bark. The werewolf sat patiently next to Tony, wagging his tail uncontrollably. Tony threw the shirt into the cart and proceeded to take the next one. They had been at it for a good ten minutes now with Tony showing one piece of clothing after another and so far the werewolf had agreed to absolutely everything. Even the bright yellow speedo Tony had held up as a joke.

It was a lost cause.The werewolf had no sense of fashion, that much was clear. Tony wondered if werewolfs like dogs couldn't see color but that wouldn't explain why Furball also said yes to a shirt that was obviously way too small for him. Maybe the wolf was just excited to do something with Tony. 

Giving up on asking the werewolf's opinion Tony resorted to having him pushing the cart and just filling it with some clothing that he thought would be a good style for the man. Some items might have made it into cart that Tony just wanted to see on him, those items might have included some skinny jeans and tight shirts. Some other essentials included underwear, socks and some shoes. When they came up to the register the entire shopping cart was full. 

"You're carrying that stuff to the car." Tony said as they waited in line, scratching the wolf's head and ignoring the stares from other people. Most stayed far away from them choosing instead to use another register or just wait far away all together. Only some didn't seem to mind the werewolf's presence. 

"I wish I could do that." Somebody suddenly said behind Tony. The genius glanced over his shoulder to see another man eyeing Furball curiously.

"Shifting outside of the full moon, I mean." He clarified, looking to Tony.

"Why's that?" Tony asked, guessing the man was a werewolf as well. Furball had tensed under his hand when the man spoke to them, another clear indication that this was no ordinary human. 

The stranger shrugged. "Sometimes it's just easier being a wolf, you don't have to deal with all the shit humans have to deal with." 

Furball let out a low growl, but that didn't deter the other from coming closer, obviously wanting to start a conversation.

"I wouldn't know." Tony said, he didn't feel comfortable with the other werewolf being so close either and scratched behind Furball's ear to try to calm him down. It was their turn now at the register and Tony just hoped the lady would hurry up with scanning his stuff. This is why he usually had people do the shopping for him.

"Do you smell that? Smells like fucking vampire in here. Gross!" The man made a point of sniffing the air before he pulled a disgusted face.

"Yeah, that would be me." Tony said matter-of-factly and flashed the guy a smile showing off his fangs.

"What the fuck!" The man took a step back, looking first at Tony then at Furball. 

"That's disgusting! Why would you stay around a fucking vampire?!" He was talking to Furball now who immediately got up, raising his hackles and growling. Tony had to step back when the wolf pushed in front of him, putting himself between Tony and the stranger and shielding him with his body. 

"You're fucking insane!" The man grabbed his stuff from the conveyer belt and took off towards another register, but not before spitting in front of Furball and flipping him the bird. Somehow the man had taken more offense to Furball being close to a vampire than the vampire itself.

"That was pleasant." Tony mumbled looking after the man. Furball sat down again, looking up at Tony whining pitifully. He pressed his head against Tony's stomach, his ears flat on his head. 

"I know... I know, Furball. That guy was mean. You're alright, don't worry." Tony leaned down scratched the wolf's neck vigorously. "You're a good boy, you wanted to protect me, didn't you?" He had the strong need to comfort the werewolf after that encounter, he had anticipated some strange looks, but never figured they would have been met with such animosity.

He petted the werewolf until the employee at the register had scanned all of their items. She had watched the whole scene and was looking sympathetic. 

"I have a cousin who's a vampire... He wouldn't go near a werewolf with a 12 ft pole. You two are quite the pair, never seen anything like that." She scanned the last article and Tony pushed it back into the cart. "That'd be 454 dollars and 32 cents, Mr. Stark. Cash or card?"

Tony handed over his credit card still keeping a hand on Furball's head. 

"Yeah, I'm starting to see it now." He mumbled. "I don't understand the hatred." 

"As a human I don't either, my cousin said they just can't stand the smell." The cashier shrugged and handed him his card back. "Guess there are exceptions, your friend is cute by the way." She smiled at Furball who tilted his head and perked up his ears. "He needs some serious grooming though, he looks like he's been in a hurricane." 

"I had the top down on the convertible." Tony smirked and took the card and put it back into his coat pocket with a flourish. "Enjoying the afternoon sun." He winked at the cashier.

"Oh, I see. Have a nice day, Mr. Stark." She smiled and gave them a little wave when Tony pushed the cart towards the exit. He was glad to be out of the place. Furball bounced around in front of him, obviously feeling the same. 

"You know she was right about the grooming." Tony said while heaving the pile of clothes into the car. Furball was walking around the car, sniffing the ground and sticking his snout under it. 

"What are you doing there? You're just going to get oil on you. Get your nose out of there." 

The werewolf was determined though and didn't stop until he had rounded the car once, he then bounced back and rubbed against Tony almost knocking him over. 

"You done now? You like the car or what were you doing there? Did you check for bombs, or what?" Tony finally closed the trunk and leaned against the car. Furball sat in front of him and barked, looking extremely proud of himself. "You did, huh? Why am I not surprised that you can sniff out explosives." Tony shook his head and laughed. 

"The cashier had a point though, you still look terrible. How would you feel if we went to a pet shop or something and got some brushes for your fur?" He pulled out his phone when the wolf barked in approval.

"JARVIS, you there?" 

"Always, Sir." 

"Get us some direction to the nearest pet shop. Oh wow there, buddy." Furball had gotten up on his hind legs and nosed the phone curiously, almost pushing it out of Tony's hand if he hadn't held onto it in time. "You wanna say high to J? You know JARVIS, the same voice as in the house." 

The werewolf huffed and barked softly, amazingly still holding his balance on his hind legs. 

"Hello Mr. Furball." JARVIS replied courtly. "The nearest pet shop is three blocks south of you, I have marked the location on your phone."

"Thanks J." Tony ended the call and took a look at the map turning towards the direction the shop was. "I think we can walk." 

Furball dropped down on all four legs again and ran ahead. Tony struggled to keep up, feeling like he was walking an overactive dog at this point.


	8. Chapter 8

People went to the other side of the street when Furball walked towards them, then stopped on the other side to take pictures of Tony. 

The millionaire started to regret not taking the car to the pet shop, but the werewolf didn't seem to mind. He was sniffing the ground, the air, looking into shop windows and generally seemed to be very excited just to walk around the city. At one point Tony had to stop when he stuck his entire head into a flower bed and stayed there. 

"You act like you've never seen flowers before..." Tony waited patiently, keeping a smile on his face and occasionally waving to people who took pictures. It was his first time out in public in years, but he still knew how to put on a show, even if he stood next to a giant werewolf sniffing flowers. Tony didn't mind the break after having to run after the wolf for a good while and getting out of breath. He had to step in though when Furball gave signs of wanting to lie down on the flowers.

"No, bad Furball. No lying in public flower beds." He grabbed a handful of fur on the back of the werewolf's neck and pulled him away. The wolf was whining and had his tail between his legs, looking down to the ground as he stood before Tony. 

"Public property is off limits." Tony berated but he wasn't mad. If at all he felt more saddened by the fact that Furball was looking like he expected punishment any moment now for having done something bad. 

"It's okay." He scratched the wolf's ears and slowly guided his head up so he could look him in the eyes. "I'm all for making a scene in public, in fact, I am famous for it, but this isn't the time really, you'd get all dirty and that's exactly the opposite of what we wanted to do."

Furball was still whining and Tony sighed. He petted the werewolf's head for a while, scratching his neck and untangling some of the fur there until the wolf calmed down a little. 

"I'm not mad, okay?" He patted the werewolf's side and started walking in the hopes the other would follow and not take it to heart too much. 

"We're gonna have a serious talk when he get back home." Back home... his mansion was home for Furball now too, wasn't it? If the werewolf decided to stay and not bail as soon as he was feeling better. 

The werewolf fell in step beside him, making a point of rubbing his flank against Tony's hips, but still had his head lowered. 

"How about I get you a big ass bone in that shop? You like bone? Like the ones for dogs? I have honestly no idea what werewolfs like, you know. I am just winging it, I basically go off a fucking Wikipedia article here." Tony shoved his hands in his pockets. 

"I'm the last one who can take care of someone, I barely manage my own life." He was glad people where changing to the other side of the street, he didn't want to face anybody right now. "I would have never thought I'd take in a werewolf. An assassin werewolf, possibly brainwashed assassin werewolf. Who apparently is tame like a puppy." 

"I thought fucking aliens were the end of it."

Furball whined and tried to lick Tony's hand, but only succeeded in covering his jacket sleeve in drool. 

"You're trying to comfort me again, I can't even handle that right now." Tony pulled his hand out of his pocket and allowed Furball to lick it not minding the slop at all until they arrived at the pet shop. 

"If somebody makes a scene again, I'll buy the whole fucking store and throw them out." 

They walked through the sliding doors and Tony took a quick look around before heading towards the accessories section hoping this is where the brushes were kept. Furball sniffed around again poking his nose against everything while he walked next to Tony. The millionaire was glad they found the brushes on first try and was a little overwhelmed with the sheer amount and variety. He picked a couple up testing how soft they were against his hand but he was at a loss. 

"Come here, Furball, you need to test these, they're for you after all."

The werewolf was pawing at some of the toys on the other side of the aisle producing various squeaking sounds. Tony shook his head at the playfulness the wolf displayed.

"You can pick out some stuff later if you want it, but for now let me rub these brushes on you."

A soft bark and Furball trotted over to Tony. The genius held out one of the brushes and the werewolf rubbed his cheek against it, then shook himself. 

"No? Not that one then...too harsh I'm guessing." 

Tony held up one after another and they repeated the process, he ended up sitting on the floor after the third one and tried the brushes and combs on various parts of Furball's body. Some brushes made it into the small pile of acceptable ones but it was tedious. Tony had no idea what he was doing but he figured a genius like him could work out how some simple grooming brushes worked. It must have been a funny sight with the millionaire sitting in the middle of the aisle on the ground brushing the werewolf tentatively. Furball himself was not a big help, he mostly held still and only complained when Tony was too rough. 

"You need help?" Somebody suddenly said behind them and Tony jumped accidentally ripping some of the wolf's fur out when he pulled the brush harshly through one of the tangles. Furball yelped and licked the now bald spot on his leg. 

"Oh, I am sorry." The employee said and kneeled down next to them. "I didn't mean to startle you, but you shouldn't use a Furminator on tangles, you need a comb for that." He reached over to the pile Tony had created next to himself and grabbed a wide toothed comb. Tony just stared at the man. 

"May I?" The man, Scott, read his name tag, turned to Furball and held out his hand. The werewolf looked to Tony looking just as confused as himself. Tony just shrugged leaving the decision up to the wolf if he wanted to engage. 

Furball sniffed the hand carefully and then proceeded to sneeze violently several times, looking quite startled once he was done. He shook himself and sniffed, rubbing his nose with his paw.

"Bless you." Tony said and Scott chuckled. 

"I just put away a new shipment of treats and catnip, should have washed my hands." 

When Furball had recovered he huffed but then placed his paw into Scott's hand and let the man brush out the tangles on his leg. Tony hoped the man didn't want to brush out all of them because he was dangerously close to Furball's glamor on his left leg.

"Start at the end of it and comb it out slowly, hold the fur close to the skin so you don't pull on it." Scott explained to Tony showing him how it's done. To Tony's relief he stopped after he brushed out a small part and picked up another brush explaining how they worked and which ones were best suitable for longer fur. 

"Fur like this needs to be brushed daily unless you clip it shorter, you also need to take out the undercoat now and then." Scott handed Tony the brushes. "That is if he stays shifted of course." 

Tony raised an eyebrow and Scott shrugged.

"Not the first werewolf looking for some grooming help, though they usually come in as humans." 

"Right." 

"Anything else I can help you with?"


	9. Chapter 9

Furball carried his bone with pride and that left Tony to carry the bag with brushes, combs and a couple of chewing treats. He felt like he had bought the entire assortment but Furball seemed happy as they walked back to the car. Scott had been a big help, explaining that werewolfs needed some dental care too even if they brushed their teeth as humans. Tony figured since Furball had spent a long time as wolf and even voluntarily changed back to it even after he could shift freely it wouldn't hurt if they had some chewing treats in the house. 

Overall the outing had given Tony a lot of insight. He felt he had a better understanding of why the werewolf acted the way he did. Even the unpleasant encounter in the clothing store had helped. Furball wasn't a normal werewolf that much was clear now. Tony had suspected it honestly, but the werewolf in the shop had confirmed it. 

Tony never had any experiences with vampire-werewolf relationships before, he knew they didn't particularly like each other, but the hatred had escaped him. He blamed the fact that he hadn't been turned the 'traditional' way, he hadn't been bitten by another vampire, he had been injected with a vampiric serum that had been harvested from vampires. He had no 'master' as other vampires had. Until the Avengers he hadn't even met another vampire. Out of shame of what had happened, of what he had become, the famous Tony Stark was a vampire now, he had withdrawn from social life, had left Stark Industries in Pepper's capable hands and had focused on his inventions. 

Furball on the other hand didn't have a problem being around him, on the contrary, he had sought him out, tried to protect him even from the other werewolf. He didn't show any signs of loyalty to his species or to the 'pack' as the Wikipedia article had described it. Maybe the hostility towards the other species was more of a nurture problem instead of an inherited trait. It certainly looked that way to Tony. 

On their way to the car Tony quickly ducked into a grocery store and got a couple more steaks while Furball waited outside. Night had fallen and it was getting colder, nevertheless Tony left the roof open on the convertible to allow Furball to look out, even if it meant he was shivering. 

Back in the mansion Tony removed the glamor from Furball's leg and then grabbed what he could of the clothes to stuff them into the washing machine. One load would be enough for now and Furball was running around him excitedly already, anxious to get back to the fireplace and have Tony try out the new brushes.

"You could help you know?" Tony said while he put the clothes into the washer. "You useless canine." 

Furball huffed and trotted back to the garage, returning shortly carrying a couple of shirts between his jaws. 

"Thanks, those certainly need to be washed now, good job." Tony rolled his eyes but couldn't help but chuckle. The werewolf looked pleased with himself and was wagging his tail as he dropped the clothes into the machine as well.

Tony started the machine and patted Furball on the head. 

"That's enough for now, the rest can wait, let's go and get you groomed."

The werewolf jumped and bounced towards the living room. He had already deposited the giant bone in front of the fire place and waited impatiently for Tony to follow, walking on the spot until the vampire sat down next to him. 

"You're excited to get these tangles out, aren't you? The sooner the better so you can live up to your name and really be a fur ball." He started with the wide toothed comb like Scott had shown him and it didn't take long until the werewolf was lying on his side, eyes closed and looking like he was in heaven. His tongue was lolling out and he occasionally made a pleased noise when Tony brushed out a particularly nasty tangle.

It took only ten minutes until the first comb was wrecked when several teeth broke off and got stuck in the wolf's fur. Tony was glad he had gotten some spares, he just hoped they were enough. Furball was so big it was hard tell how much he would end up needing. 

Tony liked working with his hands, always had and he figured grooming fur wasn't so much different than working on one of his inventions. Both needed concentration and care and he found it calmed his mind after the recent events. In a way working on Furball was more difficult, if he wasn't careful while working on a machine he might break it and have to start start over, it might cost him a couple of components but overall it wasn't a big deal. If he wasn't careful with Furball he might accidentally hurt the other and there was no excuse for that.

They stayed in front of the fireplace for the entire evening. After Tony had gotten rid of all the tangles he decided his hands needed a break and he made them both dinner. A juicy raw steak for Furball, who already looked about a hundred times better without the tangles but still needed a throughout brushing, and some blood and a not so raw steak with a side of vegetables for Tony. 

The pair settled again in the living room and instead of eating on the couch Tony decided to join the werewolf on the carpet. Furball didn't mind Tony leaning against him while they ate and as Tony soon had noticed the werewolf also didn't mind Tony talking. Maybe it was because the werewolf couldn't talk back but he had the feeling he was actually listening to what Tony had to say. 

Tony talked a lot, it was his thing really, putting forth a constant stream of words kept his concentration up and let him focus and he found having company greatly improved that habit. He talked to himself or to JARVIS when he was alone but having another corporal being close was something else. Not that he didn't enjoy talking to JARVIS, the AI had been his constant companion since his teen years but he couldn't exactly cuddle up to him, which was what he was doing right now with Furball. He hadn't realized how much he missed physical contact over the last years. Tony hadn't been in a relationship in quite some time though there have been numerous offers after the news broke of his turning. None of which he had taken serious, most of them had just wanted him to drink their blood so they could claim some fame. 

"Sir, it appears you have a guest approaching the front door." JARVIS suddenly announced. Tony was just trimming the fur around Furball's metal leg so the hair didn't get caught in the shifting plates anymore and to make for a smoother transition. The werewolf was starting to look good and Tony would have liked to finish the grooming tonight but it seemed that somebody had other plans. 

"Who is it?" Tony rarely got visitors that didn't announce themselves first or were let in by JARVIS. Reporters and fans didn't even make it through the front gate. It had to be somebody he knew 

"Agent Romanoff, Sir."


	10. Chapter 10

It was only a matter of time until somebody at SHIELD would get suspicious. They had either noticed JARVIS poking around in their files or seen some media coverage of him and Furball out shopping. The latter was more likely since he trusted JARVIS not to leave any traces he had programmed him after all. Nevertheless Tony cursed when JARVIS announced their visitor.

"Furball, you stay here. I'll handle this." Tony sounded serious and he hoped the werewolf would listen. He didn't need the Black Widow attacking his new found friend, or vice-versa. He wasn't sure who would win and he didn't want to find out.

Furball felt how agitated Tony suddenly had become and whined. He got up wanting to follow Tony and tried to squeeze past him into the hallway. 

"No, go hide or something, she can't see you. I'll send her away and then we can go back to grooming, don't worry." He had to scratch the wolf's ears and send him back to the fireplace before he could leave the living room, the werewolf was that persistant but eventually relented and lied back down but still looking like he was about to bolt.

Tony tried his best to hide his nervousness and put on his best casual smile when he finally opened the front door to face Natasha Romanoff. 

"To what do I owe the visit, Agent?" He asked, leaning against the door frame. The SHIELD agent was dressed casually and somehow still radiated a deadly aura. Romanoff was the only other vampire Tony knew and she was exceptionally powerful. She was known to use her enhanced senses and her fighting skills to extreme efficiency making her a deadly force to be reckoned with.

"I think you know why, Stark. Fury has already contacted you, but since you haven't been answering his calls he felt it was necessary to pay you a personal visit."

"I'm sorry that duty fell to you." Tony silently thanked JARVIS for keeping Fury off his back. 

Romanoff pushed past him without much effort and Tony already saw his plan fall apart of getting her off his property in a timely fashion.

The SHIELD agent suddenly stopped in the hallway and slowly pulled out her weapon. 

"Where is it?" She asked not looking to Tony, instead her eyes had locked onto the direction the living room was located.

"Where is what? Seriously, Romanoff, you can't just waltz in here and wave your gun around. You're paranoid. You and Fury too, by the way, you gotta learn to trust people and we are supposed to be a team. Avengers assemble and all that jazz, remember? We fought aliens together." Tony waved his hands about, stepping in front of Natasha who was slowly approaching the living room door. 

"Stark. Get out of the way, it's in there, I can sense it." She hissed and Tony could clearly see her fangs now. His back hit the door and Natasha's eyes narrowed at him. He knew he wouldn't be able to hold her back if she decided to go through the door and she wouldn't have any scruple going through him in the process. 

"I saw the pictures. Fury thought you were trying to pull some publicity stunt, it's all over social media." 

"And that's exactly what happened, no need to worry."

"Don't play stupid, Stark, it doesn't become you. Is it keeping you hostage? What does it have on you?"

"What? No!" Oh crap, that gave it away, Tony thought, feeling incredibly stupid for having fallen for that trick. "/He/ is not an it and he has nothing on me, I'm not being controlled or taken hostage. He came to me for help and don't you dare hurt him!" 

Natasha looked at him like he had just grown a second head then without warning she pushed him aside and opened the door. Tony expected all hell to break loose and mentally prepared for some blood shed. He had automatically assumed a defensive position and foolishly closed his eyes, but nothing happened. After a couple of seconds of silence he dared to take a peek and peered into the room.

Still with her gun at the ready Natasha stood in front of the fireplace where minutes earlier Furball had lain. The piles of loose hair that Tony had brushed out of the werewolf's coat were in plain view everywhere but the wolf himself was nowhere to be seen. 

The peace only lasted a few seconds before everything went downhill. Furball had been hiding but Tony had no idea where, next thing he knew the werewolf was tackling Natasha who was only just fast enough to avoid a bite to the throat

Furball was feral, growling and snarling as he lunged at Natasha over and over again. Only her fast reflexes kept her out of Furball's reach. He gave her no time to aim her gun and she lost it when she jumped over the couch in an attempt to escape the teeth and claws of the werewolf, but the couch was no obstacle for the huge wolf. He bounded over it with one leap and caught up with her. She danced around his attacks, winding and dodging, even in distress looking graceful. The werewolf was relentless, the couch table went flying when Furball gave it one smack with his left front paw, narrowly missing Natasha's stomach with the other, but shredding her shirt. It was enough to make her trip and that was all the werewolf needed to pin her to the ground and sink his teeth into -

"Stop!" Tony yelled having come to his senses. He was shaking, beads of sweat had formed on his forehead. Seeing the werewolf fight his turrets the other day had been one thing, but seeing him tear into his team mate with such brutality was another. 

Furball's teeth were barely an inch away from Natasha's throat and drool was dripping onto her skin. He had stopped in mid-bite at Tony's command and stood stock-still. His right front paw pinned Natasha's left arm but the metal leg and its razor sharp claws had only left indentations in the wooden floor. 

"Get away from her." Tony's voice was barely more than a whisper but the werewolf obeyed. He closed his maw and licked his lips taking a couple of steps backwards. Furball tried to make himself look as small as possible as he sat down and hung his head, wrapping his tail around his himself. He didn't dare look up to Tony. 

Natasha was slowly getting up, rubbing her left arm where the wolf had stepped on it. Tony was at her side helping her up.

"Are you alright? Did he hurt you? Please tell me he didn't. I'm so sorry, I didn't think he would attack, he was so docile the whole time." He was fuzzing around, trying to hide his terror at what had just transpired. He was horrified. Natasha however was cool and collected, almost unfazed from the attack aside from her ripped shirt. She picked up her gun, checked it over then aimed it at the werewolf. 

Tony stepped in front of it holding up his arms in surrender.

"Oh nononono. I've had enough of the whole killing each other thing right now. He's not going to do anything, he's a tame little puppy who just wants some cuddles okay?" 

"Stark." Natasha simply said, not lowering her gun.

"Romanoff." Tony countered. 

"Explain why the Winter Soldier is in your house and maybe we will talk."

Furball's head perked up at that and Tony's eyes widened, he looked from Natasha to the werewolf and then back again.

"You know him?!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to make one thing clear. I love Natasha and I don't want to see any hate towards her character in the comments. If you don't like her, keep it to yourself.


	11. Chapter 11

"I knew you were crazy, Stark, but this is a whole new level." Natasha was sitting on the couch after she had finally put her gun away at Tony's insistence. She had her arms crossed over her chest and she was still tense, but her words held no malice. She sounded concerned. 

"I take that as a compliment." Tony had settled on an armchair petting Furball's head. The werewolf had his head lying on the arm rest. He looked somewhat relaxed but his eyes never left Natasha and Tony felt he barely held back a growl when she spoke.

"Your instincts should tell you that he's bad news no matter how he's acting right now." She said

"Yadda yadda. You're going to come at me with the whole I'm a baby vampire thing? I've done some research, werewolf's can't fake their emotions when they're in wolf form so his reaction is genuine and I'm sure he just attacked you because you stormed in here with a gun at the ready thinking I needed to be protected. I'm quite capable of taking care of myself. I was in the suit when I first engaged him. I'm more curious to know how you know him though." Tony leaned forward giving for all intents and purposes the impression of an evil mastermind with his pet werewolf by his side. 

Natasha was unfazed.

"I can only tell you that he's incredibly dangerous." Natasha's face betrayed nothing but Tony knew she knew more, she always knew more than she let on.

"I could tell him to lick you to death if you don't spill it." Slowly a grin spread over Tony's face. Natasha only raised an eyebrow at that, obviously not taking the threat seriously. 

"Furball." 

The werewolf perked up, giving an affirmative huff and licking his lips. 

"You named him Furball." Natasha didn't seem surprised in the least, but the comment somehow dispersed the black cloud that had hung over the room and suddenly the mood was lighter.

"Yeah, it fits doesn't it?" Tony looked proud as he ruffled the wolf's long fur. "You actually interrupted our grooming session, you should have seen how he looked like earlier. He was all matted and dirty." He made a disgusted noise and scratched behind Furball's ears.

"I'm more surprised he listens to it." There was a small almost unnoticeable smile on the side of Natasha's lips.

Tony shrugged nonchalantly.

"He can't remember his name and so he needed one." 

"He shifted?" Natasha said with a frown.

"Yeah, well... after he was able to. Whoever had him, drugged him badly, fucking collar was almost fused to his skin." Tony gently lifted the fur on the werewolf's neck to show the still missing hair. The wolf had healed extremely well over the last day and the irritations were almost gone. 

"So," Tony changed his casual tone to a serious one and pinned Natasha with a stare. "If you were so kind and tell me what you know so I can blast these bastards to hell and beyond I would very much appreciate it." The till now rather calm atmosphere in the room suddenly turned chilly again, Tony was going to get the information out of Natasha one way or another. 

The woman remained stoic for a moment before dropping her cool demeanor and sighing.

"Alright...Back when I was with the KGB in '52 he was brought into the facility I was training at. They had us fight him, only the ones that lasted the longest were allowed to ... continue. They called him the Winter Soldier. I knew he was a werewolf, but he was never shifted in my presence." Tony felt that there was a story there but he refrained from asking. It was now also painfully obvious that his search parameters to find out Furball's identity had been completely off. The werewolf was older than he had thought, though he didn't know why. Werewolfs aged like normal human beings, usually. 

"I saw him again in Iran in 2009, I was on protective detail for a scientist. He shot the tires of my truck and we went over a cliff, I got us out and was covering the engineer. He shot him right through me."

She paused and looked at Furball. Tony couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Do you even remember me?" 

The werewolf tensed under Tony's hand and whined softly and that's all that Tony needed to know that Natasha told the truth. The werewolf was looking up to Tony for guidance like he had so often now. Tony didn't dare look at him, the reality of what he had just heard slowly sank in. Not only is the sweet werewolf he had taken in older than himself but he might have also been an active assassin for over 70 years and on top of that had shot Natasha, a woman whom he cared for even if they weren't the best of friends. She had provided help when he had struggled with his vampirism when nobody else had. 

He was angry. 

"Can't answer that for you, pal." He simply said not looking at Furball for fear of suddenly losing it and yelling at the werewolf.

Without warning Furball pulled his head free from Tony's hand, whining pitifully, and ran for the door. Natasha had her hand on her weapon before Tony could even react but the werewolf was already out of the room, leaving behind a bewildered Tony.

"Does that mean yes or no?" Natasha asked raising an eyebrow. 

"I don't know... " Tony said slowly, wondering if it was him that caused the wolf to flee so suddenly. "JARVIS?" 

"Yes, Sir?"

"Is he trying to leave?" Tony was on the edge of the armchair, ready for ... he didn't know what. Would he chase after Furball? He suddenly doubted his own judgement of the wolf, couldn't believe that he could have been fooled by the tame behaviour. He had fallen right into a trap.

"No, Sir, Mr. Furball is looking for some clothes at the moment." 

"Oh." Tony was relieved. He hadn't been wrong about the werewolf, he wasn't leaving then, he had shifted. There was no describing how bad Tony felt for having doubted him. 

True enough Furball trotted back into the living room having changed back into Steve's hoodie and sweatpants just a minute later, though very hesitant and unsure, that much was obvious. He kept his head low so his hair obscured his face. Tony expected or hoped the man would come back to him and already scooted over to make some room on the armchair, but the werewolf sat down in front of the fireplace, leaving Tony with a pang in his heart that definitely didn't come from the arc reactor.

"I don't remember you." Furball said after a moment, still not looking up. He had his shoulder's hunched and pulled on the edge of his left sleeve trying to cover the metal hand with it. Tony noticed that this time he didn't have the wolf ears and tail anymore and he already missed them.

"I don't remember being in Iran or Russia. I can't even remember when the last time was that I wasn't shifted before I got here. All I remember is that they had me attack people, they stuffed me in a van, let me loose and after that they threw me back in a kennel." Furball had given up on trying to cover his left hand and had instead wrapped his arms around himself. 

"Anything else?" Natasha was calm unlike Tony who was once again boiling with rage. Furball hadn't told him about the kennel, just the missions. What had they done to him that he forgot everything before that? Brainwashing? What happened to him that he forgot 70 years of his life?

Furball shock visibly and he tightened his grip around himself, his flesh and blood hand gripping hard at the fabric of the sweater. Tony wanted nothing more than to comfort him, stroke his hair and scratch his ears, but the werewolf obviously didn't want to be near him. He couldn't blame him. 

"There was the chair." Furball suddenly said and pulled Tony out of his self-loathing again. 

"What chair?" Natasha was in full on interrogation mode and Tony just wanted her to be more gentle, couldn't she see how the man was shaking?

"It was big... bigger than a normal chair. They strapped me into it..." The words left Furball's mouth slowly and strained even without seeing his face Tony could tell how painful it was for him to recall the memory. 

"Over and over again..can't remember what happened before or after. I just remember the chair and the pain."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to make one thing clear. I love Natasha and I don't want to see any hate towards her character in the comments. If you don't like her, keep it to yourself.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter took me forever. There is no cute stuff unfortunately. 
> 
> (TW: Description of violence and blood shed)

Tony pulled up every holo screen in the lab as soon as they entered. Natasha got to work on one of the screens remotely accessing SHIELD files while Tony sat down at another station. 

Furball after some prompting from Tony had followed them into the lab, hands in his pockets and head down. He was still barefoot but he was barely making a sound as he rounded the tables much the same way he had done the day before in wolf form. His anxiety was permiating the whole room and Tony could barely keep himself calm. He wanted to hold the other, telling him everything was going to be alright that they were going to figure out who he was and who had kept him. 

Natasha had agreed to help and see what information she could find on the SHIELD server, she had a higher clearance than Tony, much to his chagrin. It would be easier and faster for her to find the relevant files than him hacking into their system. Tony in the meantime sorted through JARVIS results, adjusting the search parameters. 

"Search everything going back to the four, J, whatever footage you can find."

"Of course, Sir. Not much digital footage is available this far back." 

"I know, J. Look at archives, museums, whatever, I don't care. Find a match for our furry friend." Tony rubbed his face with both hands before glancing back to Furball. The werewolf was barely visible where he had sat down on the floor in the shadows, knees drawn up against his chest. He had chosen a spot as far away from them as possible but still with a clear view of what Natasha and Tony were doing. 

Tony's heart ached.

"Try your best, J."

"Yes, Sir." 

Natasha glanced over to him and raised an eyebrow once more; Tony wondered if the brow sometimes got stuck in that position. He just shrugged. 

"Get me those files, Nat." 

"Are you sure you want to see this?" Natasha asked again. On the way to the lab she had already brought up concerns that he might not want to see what little information was available about the Winter Soldier, but Tony didn't care.

Without answering Tony pulled the files from her station to his own screens with a smooth hand gesture. He opened the videos and reports and was hit with a wave of violence as scenes of carnage flooded the screens. The images ranged from blurry black and white photographs of to HD movies but the all had the same general theme. Death. 

"Order by year, JARVIS." Tony said flatly, the imagery was simply overwhelming and as dates flashed on the screen it became apparent that the Winter Soldier had been active for an enormous amount of time. The earliest footage dated back even to before Natasha had met him. 

Tony didn't even want to look closely but it became clear that there were two different modi operandi present. On one hand there were the clean executions where all there was was a picture of a victim with a bullet hole in his or her head and then there were the blood baths were it wasn't even possible to identify the victims anymore because they had been torn apart. 

"J, did we find out where Furball came from? The facility he attacked?" 

Natasha stiffened in her seat and glanced back at the werewolf. Tony knew she wasn't comfortable with him around and to be honest, he wasn't even sure of that himself anymore. The information that he had only recently attacked something was news to her and Tony was certain it only strengthened her belief that he was dangerous.

"Yes, Sir, I was able to identify the location. The news reported it as an accidental fire, but SHIELD agents have been on site."

"SHIELD, huh?" Tony looked to Natasha and now it was his time to raise an eyebrow. 

"I don't know everything that's going on at SHIELD, Stark, but if there were signs of the Winter Soldier attacking you can be sure SHIELD is going to be involved in some way." She crossed her arms and leaned against the table, Tony shrugged and turned back toward his screens.

"I'm guessing they made a file about the incident, display everything you got." 

Tony wished he hadn't just said that because the images popping up on the screen matched the previous ones in gruesomeness. Mutilated bodies among the charred remains of buildings. The pictures didn't leave anything out, some SHIELD agent had been far too eager to document every macabre detail. From the blood splatters on the wall to the dismembered limbs, everything had been recorded.

The information displayed next to the photos listed the facility as a chemical plant used to produce fertilizer but SHIELD notes stated that this was just a cover up and the plant was actually used by A.I.M.. Tony wasn't that familiar with them but he knew they were a criminal organization bent on overthrowing the government through means of technology, though they had yet to proceed to actually pose a threat as SHIELD had a close eye on them. That left the question who would want to take them out besides SHIELD?

Suddenly Natasha pulled out her phone and answered a call. Tony only barely registered that she was talking, he was in shock about what Furball had done. Yes, the werewolf had told him he had attacked a facility but he had never thought he would be so brutal, so merciless. His thoughts were once again conflicting with his feelings about the man. How can someone who acted so gentle be capable of such violence. 

"May I remind you that you have yet to analyze the contents of Mr. Furball's collar." JARVIS suddenly interrupted his thoughts as if the AI knew he needed a reminder. Furball had been forced to do this, drugged into compliance by his handlers.

As if in trance Tony got up and walked over to the corner where the collar had been lying since he had thrown it there the day before. He picked it up, turning it around in his hands so the edged letters were visible. 

"This wasn't you, Furball." Tony mumbled, tracing the name 'Asset' with his thumb. 

"I have to go." Natasha was just behind him and Tony jumped, clutching the collar to his chest. 

She didn't raise an eyebrow instead she looked worried at him, cellphone still in hand.

"Yes..sure." Tony swallowed hard and released his iron grip on the collar, dropping his hands to his side and just holding onto it loosely.

"Something happen?" He asked composing himself again.

"There has been an attempt on Fury's life. I have to go to DC."

"Isn't that a daily occurance?" Tony huffed a laugh. Natasha was unfazed by his attempt at humor. 

"It's something big. I can't tell you more." She put her hand on her hip, her face stern.

"Or you'd have to kill me, alright. You do your SHIELD and spy thing, I'll be here trying to figure out the mystery of the century." Tony put the collar on a nearby table and turned to get some tools to take it apart further, dismissing her with a hand wave.

"Be careful, Tony."

First names were always a bad sign coming from Natasha. He turned around and nodded, right now his emotions were in turmoil and he had a hard time keeping them from showing on his face, anger mixed with deep sadness over what he had just seen. He wanted to set things right, find out who had made Furball do all these things and how much control the werewolf had over his actions. 

"I will." 

After a short moment of putting Tony through a scrutinizing stare Natasha relaxed and sighed. 

"I'll call in some favors after this is over, see if I can get some more information that's not in SHIELD files, alright?" 

Tony nodded again and Natasha left the lab. He felt some of the tension leave his body without the older vampire judging every one of his moves. He leaned against the table taking a deep breath and running a hand through his hair trying to calm himself down and formulate a plan in his head. The contents of the collar needed to be analyze, find out what drugs had been in Furball's system. Then he needed to find out what kind of people were after a criminal organization like A.I.M that SHIELD didn't know about.

It wasn't until a couple of minutes of pondering that he realized he hadn't seen or heard anything from Furball since they had entered the lab.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please no character hate in the comments.


	13. Chapter 13

Furball wanted to throw up. The only thing stopping him was that his human - Tony as he now knew - would be mad again. He tried to keep calm and quiet, the two vampires were busy talking and they didn't need him drawing attention. 

He couldn't look at the pictures anymore, at the things he did, things that he didn't even remember. 

Some of the images jostled something inside his brain and memories flashed in front of his eyes. He couldn't take it anymore, he crawled behind the desk, out of view and curled up. The images kept coming, the horror he had just seen on the blue flashing screens were now vivid in his mind. He couldn't stop them, it was all he was able to think about. Even the scenes he didn't remember directly he could feel himself respond to, like his body knew he had done those things.

It was hurting him and he wanted to cry out unable to bear the revelation, but he willed himself to be still. He didn't want to anger Tony, his human was already upset with him, there was no telling how upset he would be after seeing those images. It was better to not draw attention and keep away. 

Somewhere in the distance someone called out to him but he couldn't be certain over the cries of his victims that echoed in his brain. Only when a familiar scent filled his nostrils did he return to the lab. Albeit he still tasted the human blood in his mouth he knew he wasn't trapped in his memories anymore. 

\--------

"Furball?" Tony called out carefully, pushing himself off the table and looked around. "Buddy? Where are you?" 

The werewolf wasn't were he had sat previously but it was the first place Tony looked and he didn't have to search for long. Furball had curled up on the other side of the table out of view, still on the floor, but in a tight fetal position. He had covered his head with his right arm, the left one held out at an awkward angle like it wasn't part of his body. 

"Hey there." Tony said quietly, kneeling down beside him, he didn't dare touch him still feeling like the other didn't want to be close to him. 

"I did all these things." Furball mumbled, it sounded more like a question than anything else and Tony realized that he was talking about the footage, he probably saw everything. However they only showed the aftermath and never the shooter or the beast that tore those people apart. 

Tony didn't have an answer. Furball was the Winter Soldier that much was sure but it was questionable how much of his actions were really his own and how much of those could be attributed to the crimes SHIELD thought he had committed.

It was hard to comprehend, the whole situation was a mess and Tony was tired to think about it. Tony wanted to do the right thing but what was the right thing? Turn him over to SHIELD? He knew Natasha would want that but she trusted him enough as a team member to not press the issue. For now. Maybe there had even been some compassion involved, it was hard to tell with Natasha. Steve would know what to do, he was good with these morale dilemmas, having all these good human values as the perfect American hero and all. But having fought werewolfs in World War II Steve also hated them with a passion. He was probably the only human in this world who hated werewolfs more than some vampires did. 

"Come on, you don't have to lie on the ground. I have a couch over there that you can curl up on."

"Couch is off limits." Furball quietly repeated his own words back to him from when they first met.

Tony's heart, if it was possible, broke even more at the quiet statement. Furball had avoided the couches because he had said so, Tony wanted to kick himself. He had to swallow hard and try to get his dry mouth to work on an answer to that. He was horrified that such simple words had caused so much harm, but he knew he couldn't have known they had such an impact, that Furball would take them as an order to never go near a couch again choosing instead to sit on the floor. And especially here in the lab where there was no carpet or fireplace nearby it must be terribly uncomfortable for Furball.

"No.. the couch is fine. That was just because you were so dirty earlier." Tony tried to sound light hearted but even to his own ears it sounded weak. It was only now that Furball actually lifted his head and peered at Tony and he looked horrible. There were deep circles under his misty eyes and his pale skin shone with sweat, like he had just woken up from a nightmare. 

Tony reached out and slowly placed his hand on the side of Furball's head, giving the other man enough time to move away if he didn't want to be touched. But instead of moving away Furball closed his eyes and leaned into into the touch. Tony could feel a tremor running through the other's body as he lightly trailed his fingers through his hair. Then suddenly he felt something move under his hand and almost pulled away but was too intrigued at what was happening. 

He watched with wide eyes as Furball's ear - his human ear - transformed and moved to the top of his head, changing in shape and sprouting the soft fur Tony had come so accustomed to. At first Tony thought Furball was shifting completely but this was the only change that was happening and he was amazed how Furball could so easily achieve a partial shift. 

"Wow." Tony breathed and Furball's eyes flew open. He pulled back and his hands went to his head. 

"I'm sorry, so sorry.... I didn't mean to." 

"Shh, it's okay." Tony smiled assuringly and shrugged. "I kinda missed the ears, you know." 

Furball stared at him with wide eyes and Tony decided to reach out again to proof his point. He telegraphed his movements carefully and Furball dropped his hands from his ears, granting Tony access to scratch them softly. 

"There, see? I don't mind."

The werewolf relaxed a little but he still looked uncomfortable with the situation, keeping his eyes on the ground. Tony was about to say something when Furball spoke again.

"I'm sorry I attacked your friend." He whispered, drawing his shoulders up and hunching in on himself. "She smelled really bad at first, I thought she was going to hurt you."

Tony was taken aback by the sudden apology and it took a moment for him to realize the reason Furball had attacked Natasha. 

"You wanted to protect me?" 

Furball nodded. 

"She smelled bad." He repeated again. 

"Because she's a vampire?" Tony continued scratching Furball's ear. He got a little bit more comfortable on the floor, scooting closer to the other man.

"No." Furball shook his head. "I knew she was a vampire, I could smell it, but she also smelled bad... bad intentions. It's hard to describe. Vampires just smell like... vampires. Like a human smells like a human or a dog like a dog." He shrugged and hung is head. "But when someone smells bad they want to hurt, want to cause pain." 

"And people that smell good?" 

Furball shrugged again and to Tony's surprise he blushed, it was just a tiny hue of red on the werewolf's cheek but it was certainly there. 

"It's the opposite I guess..." He quietly said.

Tony knew there was more to that but he didn't press it. 

"What about Natasha, you said she smelled bad at first? Did something change?" 

Furball thought for a moment, his blush disappearing. 

"I think she's good at masking her scent and I can't smell as good in this form. I can't really tell what is going on with her. She's confusing." 

Tony laughed a little at that.

"Yeah, that about sums up Natasha. Confusing as hell. Don't worry, everybody feels the same about her, but she's not bad. She helped me out a lot with figuring things being a vampire and all." Tony stroked Furball's hair down his neck, then held a comforting hand on the other's back. "Now let's get you to the couch, okay?" 

Furball looked up and there was that tiny smile again that Tony had come to love so much and suddenly maybe things didn't feel as bad as they really were.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These chapters are getting more complicated so it will take me a while to finish them from now on... meanwhile if you want to look at dogs that look like werewolf Bucky but in white you should google Samoyed dogs. They are so god damn fluffy.


	14. Chapter 14

The atmosphere in the lab had turned a little lighter once Furball had been deposited on the couch. Tony had guided the shaking man over to it without many difficulties, Furball was like putty in his hands. 

"It's not the prettiest thing but it's definitely the most comfortable, I had this couch since college." Tony took a look around for the blanket he usually used but it seemed the thing had scurried off on his own or he had possibly lost it somewhere in the lab when he had used it as a cape. The latter seemed more probable. "I swear there was a blanket around here somewhere, I'll go look for it and hope it's not drenched in motor oil, just... sit here." 

He gestured for Furball to stay put. The werewolf only blinked at him, seemingly still a little out of it. It was then that a number of beeps and chirps could be heard from from behind Tony and soon a little crane on wheels came out from behind a desk, clutching a blanket in its claw.

"Dum-E! You're finally being useful. Where was it? No, wait, don't tell me. I don't want to know what you did with it." Tony took the blanket from his robot and turned to Furball again, who was staring at the robot with wide eyes. 

"Don't worry. That's just my lab assistant." Tony grinned and patted Dum-E on the claw, like he would pet a dog on the head. "I built him back when I didn't know what I was doing so he turned out a bit funky, but quite lovable. If he doesn't try to use a fire extinguisher on you even though you're not on fire." To Dum-E he said, "now scurry off, don't want you to scare our guest even more." 

Dum-E made a disappointed beeping noise but rolled away and towards his charging station. Tony felt a bit bad for sending the robot away, but he didn't need Dum-E bothering Furball even if his intentions were innocent and he just wanted to examine their guest. Dum-E was hard to handle for most people of sound mind, he didn't want to see how Furball would handle it. The man was confused enough already. 

Said confusion was clearly visible on the werewolf's face but he didn't seem upset. 

"Anyway, here's the blanket. Snuggle up tight, if you don't mind I'll be doing some work on the collar, I mean... you don't have to stay here, obviously, but if you want, feel free to snuggle up and watch a genius work." Tony rubbed the back of his neck, he didn't know why he keeps losing his confidence in front of Furball.

He didn't need to worry in the least as Furball took the blanket and the first thing he did was sniff on it and then proceeded to wrap it around his shoulders. Furball curled up on the couch, pulling the blanket close to his face and Tony happily returned to the lab table where he had left the collar. There were still some photos on the screens and he quickly got rid of them, wanting to spare Furball and himself any more reminders.

His first task was finding the mass spectrometer that he was certain was somewhere in the lab, he didn't use it often as molecular chemistry wasn't his main focus but he had gotten it when Bruce had stayed in the mansion after the Avengers had been assembled. If he couldn't make sense of the results from the substances he could always ask the chemist for help, Bruce might have traveled to the other side of the world for his studies, but the science bros had stayed in contact. Bruce had specialized in transformation chemistry of lycanthropy so it wasn't a bad idea to consult him. 

Tony found comfort in working in the lab and it was no different this time. The mass spectrometer was neatly tugged away in a corner, Bruce must have put it away before he had left and made Tony's work a lot easier. It took close to no time to set it up and take samples from the collar and while the tests were running Tony used to check on Furball. 

The werewolf had bundled up in the blanket, the only thing visible were his ears poking out on the top. Tony didn't know if he had fallen asleep and therefor approached the couch carefully. He sat down on the edge of the couch next to Furball's head and smiled when the werewolf perked his head up just enough to look at him. 

"You doing alright there?" Tony gently placed his hand on the werewolf's head and scratched lightly. 

Furball nodded and closed his eyes, pushing the blanket back against his nose. 

"You know, I have a friend who knows a thing or two about werewolves. Do you mind if I talk to him about what's in the collar? He might be able to help us figure some things out." 

Furball's eyes flew open and he looked at Tony in panic. 

"Here?" He asked quietly and Tony knew where he had just gone wrong. After the encounter with Natasha Furball probably didn't want to face another unknown person so soon, he looked exhausted.

"No, not here." Tony quickly assured him. "He is in India right now, I would call him, but only if it's alright with you. I won't tell him anything about where you came from or the situation..." He kept up the scratches behind Furball's ears, hoping to calm him down again. "I trust him and he's not like Natasha, he's actually very accepting of werewolves." 

Furball nodded, albeit hesitantly. 

"You don't have to talk to him, but if anybody knows what the substances in the collar did to you, it's him. He's been studying werewolves for years, or well, the shifting process more accurately, he's a good friend of mine." 

"I don't want to talk to a scientist." Furball said and, even though Tony didn't think it possible, sank deeper into the blanket, his ears going flat against his head. Tony didn't have the heart to tell him that he technically was talking to a scientist right now. 

"Don't worry, I'll do the talking." 

They stayed on the couch for a while with Tony trailing his hand through Furball's hair lazily until an annoying beeping interrupted them. The werewolf jerked awake and looked around panicked. He had closed his eyes and relaxed as Tony had massaged his scalp. 

Tony made comforting noise. "Just the mass spectrometer, it's done and I should probably check on it." With a final scratch to Furball's ears Tony got up. He would have loved to stay and just pet the other, he had never realized how calming it was. Maybe it was a little odd now that Furball was a human and not a giant wolf with fur, but he honestly didn't care, the other seemed to enjoy it. He was about to walk back to the spectrometer when he felt a tug on his pant leg. 

Furball had managed to get his right hand out from the blanket ball and was holding onto him. He looked up at Tony with puppy eyes - almost literally - and Tony sighed. 

"I have to check on it. I'm not gonna go away, I'm just over there." He knew that wasn't exactly what this was about but after a moment Furball retracted his hand. Tony felt bad when he walked away and made plans once he had called Bruce and gotten some results he'd deposit Furball on the couch in the living room and groom him some more. The guy had long enough hair as a human after all. It struck Tony as one of the better ideas he had recently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took waaaaaay too long. Unfortunately the holidays have really thrown a wrench in my writing routine. I had planned on doing a Chanukka special set in the future of this universe but I got really sick literally as I was writing it. (Also I started writing my own novel so that has cut into my writing time as well.)
> 
> I hope you enjoy this chapter, some of the questions will probably be answered in the next... I hope.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Extra long chapter? Yay.

"Brucey bear!" 

"Don't call me that, Tony." Bruce sighed and rubbed his eyes. His image flickered lightly on the screen in front of Tony, nothing to do with his technology, mind you, but even the best tech couldn't make a connection work to the most secluded place on earth. Which was where Bruce liked to be most of the time. Currently the scientist was residing in a small village in the Himalayas at an elevation of 4000 meters. 

"Cuddly green ragemonster?" 

Bruce groaned. "My name will do, you know." 

Tony smirked, despite the bad video quality he saw Bruce's tiny smile. 

"You're a bit early. I didn't expect your call until the day after tomorrow, something wrong?" 

Tony swiveled in his chair, twirling a screwdriver between his finger. "Wrong, no, well,... maybe a little bit, but other than Natasha getting almost killed by a werewolf nothing dramatic has happened." He paused. "Except said werewolf showing up at my house yesterday...or the day before yesterday. Didn't exactly keep track of time. How long was it since Furball showed up?" 

"27 hours and 17 minutes, Sir." The electronic butler answered immediately. 

"What is going on, Tony? A werewolf almost killing Natasha? Is she hurt? Are you hurt? Is this why you are calling? Did you get bitten? If you got bitten you shouldn't have called me but went straight to the hospital. Werewolf serum doesn't mix well with vampire blood, it's highly toxi-"

Tony waved his hands in front of the camera. "Wooow, stop. Nobody got bitten! I'm fine! Natasha's fine too and Furball is fine as well... as well as he can be at least."

Bruce looked at him like he had just grown a second head, nothing new really. Tony was used to getting that look whenever something happened in his life. 

"So you're saying you have a werewolf in your house? Right now?" Bruce took off his glasses and rubbed his face. "Just start from the beginning, Tony." 

Tony told Bruce the whole story, starting from when the perimeter alarm went off last night and he found Furball tearing into his defense turret until just now when he had put Furball on the couch after Natasha had left. Bruce listened without interrupting him, he was patient like that. Tony left out a few things here and there, the more personal things, like grooming Furball or the panic attack the werewolf had earlier.

Tony shrugged when he was finished with his story. 

"I couldn't let him go off on his own again and it doesn't even look like he wants that. He's actually really shy." He didn't mention the incident when Furball thought he was not allowed on the couch because Tony made a stupid remark about it when they first met. 

"Furball is not his real name, is it? That's just one of your made up nick names right?" 

"Yeah... but it's also his name for now. He can't remember anything, as I said, not even his name. I'm running a search algorithm with his face and a few other details but nothing so far. It's fucking difficult because he might be 70 years old or even older. Natasha knew him from back when she was with the KGB." Tony sighed. "Who knows what they have done to him." 

"And that actually where you come in. He had this collar on when he got here, he said he had it on for at least 6 months. That's how long he had been shifted for." 

Bruce looked like he was about to say something, but Tony was faster.

"Yes, I know, werewolves are not able to shift longer than the full moon, but you'll find Furball isn't like ordinary werewolves." 

Tony held up the collar and showed the little compartments on it, taping it with the screwdriver in his other hand. 

"There was some weird stuff in there, I put it through the spectrometer and I can tell what a few of them are ... but I have no idea what the last one is and I thought you probably know more about it."

"Yeah... I can take a look if you send me the data." 

"Already happened, Jarvis?" 

"The data has been sent, but due to external circumstances it will take a few moments to arrive at Dr. Banner's location."

"Why the Himalayas, Brucie? Wouldn't have a beach in the Bahamas been nicer? Not to say better wi-fi?" 

Bruce chuckled. "I go where my research is and in this region there is an almost undisturbed sub-species of shifters. Mountain wolfs. Their genetics is remarkable and they have showed some interesting shifting abilities. I am just getting to know them and so far they have allowed me to take a few blood samples. I am waiting for the new full moon now to - " Bruce was interrupted by a beep on his end of the connection and his attention shifted from the camera to the side of his screen.

"Oh I got it." He pushed his glasses up his nose and scrunched his eyebrows. 

"What is this... cocaethylene... benzodiazepine...hyoscine...cyanide? Where did you say did you find this stuff? In a collar? In a /person/? Someone with only a minimal amount of these would be extremely violent while at the same time be susceptible to suggestion, they would be drugged out of their mind, probably following orders blindly, if they're not dead already from the cyanide."

"The cyanide was probably a back up plan in case he went rogue or something like that. It wasn't connected to the main line that led into his body. But those were the things I already knew. The fifth substance is what had be wondering. Could it be what kept him in his werewolf form?" 

Bruce nodded and looked back to his screen. "It looks like a variant on licutan, you know the newly developed drug to help werewolves through the shift, except there are a couple differences. I can't really tell you what it does without doing some tests, but it's probably safe to assume that's what suppressed his shifting." 

The scientist was silent for a while, looking down, hands clasped in front of him. 

"Tony...tell me, what's really going on?"

Tony looked across the lab, Furball was just out of view behind a table and it was probably better that way. He had known that question was coming, but he didn't have an answer. How could he if he wasn't even sure what was happening himself?

"I don't know, Bruce." He admitted. "This guy just stumbled in here, completely drugged up and injured and I thought, yeah, fix him up, because that's what I do. I couldn't know it's probably the conspiracy of the century." Tony sighed. "It's something big, I can feel it. This isn't just some ordinary off-the-rack kidnapping and torturing going on here."

"You say ordinary like it's a good thing..." Bruce frowned.

"You know what I mean...not something the police would deal with. A single person wouldn't have the means to do something like this." He pointed to the collar and also thought about the metal arm the werewolf was sporting. That wasn't something he wanted to mention to Bruce just yet.

He swiveled his chair from side to side. "But hey, Natasha is helping as soon as her thing in DC is done and then we're gonna figure it out, so don't worry. And, I know, you're concerned for my safety, but I can assure you, that Furball is perfectly harmless." Except to those hundreds of victims on the video footage, Tony thought but quickly pushed the images out of his mind.

Bruce looked at him over the rims of his glasses, scrutinizing him. "You know even a quinjet can't get to me right now, right?" He said, not adding the obvious 'in case you need the Hulk to smash things'.

Tony nodded. "I know, but nothing is going to happen. And I still have my suits, remember? I'm Iron Man!" He put on his best victorious grin and gestured to himself. Bruce didn't look convinced but after a few moments sighed and nodded. 

"How's the werewolf doing now? Does he have any withdrawal symptoms from the drugs? I'm surprised you two actually get along." Bruce asked suddenly switching topics. 

"You're not the first one to point that out. I don't understand why this is such a problem, why don't werewolves and vampires get along? We're past the dark ages where they slaughtered each other like animals. I don't get it, and I would like to get it because things I don't understand bother me to no end. Is this some well kept secret only vampires with a master get to know? I honestly feel so left out right now." Tony huffed and crossed his arms. "And Furball is doing fine. I take good care of my guests."

"Tony..." Bruce started slowly. 

"No, I get the whole blood drinking thing and how I can't go out into the sun anymore, it sucks but at least I get it. My body just can't deal with the UV rays anymore and my digestive system is all fucked up now, but I'm not gonna start hating on werewolves just because I'm a vampire." He was working himself into a rage, from the guy in the store to Natasha and now Bruce, it was like they were all in on it and he had no idea what was happening. And Bruce wasn't even a vampire or a werewolf. 

"I was just going to explain, Tony." Bruce said a little annoyed. "It's not the dislike for the other species that is inherent but rather a consequence of a couple of defense mechanisms that each species developed."

Tony glanced to the camera and raised an eyebrow, prompting Bruce to continue.

"Werewolves have developed a chemical in their bodies that makes their blood taste awful for any vampire that tries to drink it and, as you probably know, most vampires can already tell how someone's blood will taste before they even bite someone. It's their sixth sense of sorts. In return vampires have developed an enzyme that makes them smell extremely vile to werewolves, a pheromone if you will. It's especially potent when they are upset, which is usually what happens when a werewolf is nearby. It's a vicious cycle really."

"Bruce, I trust your scientific expertise but what you just said made zero sense. I've tasted his blood." 

"What?" 

"Yeah... I mean, I didn't bite him or anything, but when I removed the collar he bled a little and I tried it. And honestly? That was the best blood I've tasted since this whole vampire thing started. Best thing since grilled cheese even. And he doesn't mind my smell maybe it's because I'm not really upset having him here but he said I smelled good. It's the reason he came to me." 

Bruce looked at him with that expression again.

"You don't believe me, do you? JARVIS, can I get a live feed of Furball over there to show incredulous Brucie here? Bet he got his nose stuck to my blanket. A blanket that stinks of my vampire pheromones by the way."

JARVIS activated one of the cameras on the other side of the lab and sure enough Furball had his face buried in the blanket, just the top of his head and his ears were poking out. He seemed to be asleep or at the very least had his eyes closed to rest a little. Tony's heart jumped a little, seeing the werewolf so relaxed made him happy, he looked so peaceful.

It took a moment until Bruce could see the image as well but his reaction was priceless. Tony grinned smugly when the other actually got up from his chair to lean close to his monitor adjusting his glasses in the process. 

"Are those wolf ears?"


	16. Chapter 16

It took Tony over ten minutes to convince Bruce that he couldn't make Furball his next research project no matter how unique his shifting abilities were. Bruce only relented when Tony straight up told him that Furball didn't want to talk to any scientist. Tony promised he would introduce them when Bruce returned from his trip and Furball was still around at that point. He figured that if they found out who he was and he remembered his life he might not want to stay with Tony anymore. For some reason that thought left a painful ache in his chest.

After ending the call with Bruce Tony spent a moment just looking at Furball on the monitor. He looked so peaceful sleeping, and comfortable all wrapped up in a blanket. Tony wondered how long it had been since the man had felt any kind of comfort in his life. The first day he had spent with Tony he had slept on the floor. Even when he was in his werewolf form that didn't feel right to Tony and he made mental note to make sure Furball slept in a bed today. 

He checked the clock while he was at it and was surprised to see it was already morning, the sun was about to rise and his body told him this was the time to go to sleep, but like most days Tony ignored it. He refused to give in to what others called the nature of his species. Tony just called it annoying. 

He stopped the spying on the monitor and got up to saunter over to Furball on the couch. He flopped down on the edge of it like he had done before and he was not surprised when Furball startled awake and tensed up. Tony placed his hand on the werewolf's head, stroking his hair. 

"Just me." Tony said softly. 

Furball relaxed under his hand and sunk back into the cushions, closing his eyes again for a moment. 

"You hungry? I'm starving, I could probably eat a cow... and drink it too. I need some blood. That's gross, saying it like that, do you think that's gross?" 

Furball shook his head, looking up at Tony with confusion written all over his face.

"Nevermind." Tony slapped himself mentally. "You want some pizza? We can order in. It's breakfast time for normal people but who cares. You like pizza? Course you do, everybody likes pizza." 

Tony had absentmindedly continued to scratch Furball's ears while gesturing with this other hand. He only looked down again when Furball's ears twitched against his hand and found the werewolf hunching in on himself a little, looking quite uncertain. 

"You don't like pizza..." Tony said with a gasp and faux disappointment. "Damn. Well, we can order Chinese or Thai, or classic American burgers... whatever you want. JARVIS can pull up a list of what's available." 

"What's pizza?" The meek voice interrupted Tony's ramblings.

"Huh?" He said dumbfounded before catching himself, don't make a big deal out of it, he told himself. "Pizza is the best food ever invented by mankind, you're gonna love it. I'd say we order some and you can try it out, what do you say?" 

"Alright..." Furball didn't sound convinced but his stomach betrayed him when it rumbled loudly. Tony laughed and ruffled Furball's hair. 

"Don't worry. Pizza comes in so many flavors, there's gonna be something you enjoy. In fact, let's order the whole Avengers package, JARVIS, can we do that? Maybe one of each only though, don't need the eight extra pizzas for Thor and Steve." 

"Order is on it's way, Sir." 

"This way you get the whole experience. Bruce gets a veggi pizza with broccoli, that sounds disgusting but is actually quite tasty. Clint gets the classic pepperoni and Nat the anchovies, I'm guessing being a vampire for so long probably busted her taste buds, because that tastes awful. Thor isn't much better with his pineapple pizza, but Steve with meatballs is probably something you'd like. And of course. I get the best pizza. Cheese pizza, with the best cheeses in the world and of course with extra cheese." Tony's mouth started to water just thinking about it. "It's gonna be a feast." 

Furball looked at him with wide eyes, ears pressed flat against his head..

"Too much information, huh? Yeah... I tend to ramble when I get exited and I am really excited for pizza right now." Tony played with Furball's ear trying to get it to stand up again. "How about we go upstairs and wait there. The couch there is bigger and it's more comfortable with the fireplace and maybe I can brush your hair while we wait." There, that was it. It just came out like that. That wasn't weird at all, Tony thought, asking a guy if you can brush his hair. Not at all. He mentally slapped himself again. 

"I'd like that." 

Tony beamed at that answer, not having expected it at all. 

"Then let's go." He hopped off the couch and stretched his arms over his head, yawning, thenwalked to the door, expecting Furball to follow and was surprised when the werewolf stayed behind. Furball had gotten up from the couch but was looking quite lost holding the blanket in his hands. His hair resembled a bird's nest after being under the blanket for so long and his sweatshirt has ridden up his stomach revealing a sliver of pale skin. 

Tony forced his gaze back up again and looked into Furball's questioning eyes.

"You can take it with you." He answered. There were plenty of blankets in the living room but it didn't take a genius to see that Furball got attached to this one, and Tony didn't mind one bit. He chuckled when Furball wrapped the blanket around his shoulders and hurried over to him. They walked back to the living room together with a short stop at the kitchen where Tony got himself a small ampoule of blood and a glass because pizza wasn't going to satisfy that need.

In the living room Tony turned the fire place on and gestured for Furball to sit on the couch. The robots had cleaned most of the mess that Furball's previous grooming session had left but there were still tufts of fur everywhere. Tony would have to upgrade the cleaning bots soon if they continued like that. 

Furball curled up on the couch again much the same way he had done in the lab. Tony put down his glass and picked up some of the brushes from the floor. They still had bits of fur in them but he just picked it out. One with very soft and dense bristles was his choice in the end when he sat down next to Furball. He took a sip of his drink then pulled his feet underneath his body to sit up a little higher. With his hands on the werewolf's shoulders he gently guided him so his back was to him. Furball was surprisingly pliable under his hands.

It turned out brushing someone's hair while they had wolf ears poking out the top of their head wasn't quite as easy as Tony had imagined. He had to be careful not to tug on them and run the brush around them. First of all he brushed out the tangles from the long hair, it had become quite the mess when Furball had made a blanket burrito out of himself. 

"You know, Bruce was wondering how you can do that." Tony said when he started brushing the ears themselves, the fur had a different texture to the rest of his hair, which wasn't surprising, but it was just as soft, with little tufts at the end of them. 

"The ears I mean." He added and felt the ear he was holding suddenly twitch away from him for a moment. Tony quickly rubbed the spot where the ear connected to Furball's skull, a sensitive spot he had found out, and the werewolf relaxed again.

"I don't know... I just do." Furball started and shrugged. "They made me shift so often it's hard to distinguish sometimes. It gets confusing...but I can hear better like this." He turned a little to look up at Tony. "Is that bad?" 

Furball sounded scared and Tony swallowed hard, stopping his brushing for a moment. "Bad? No, not at all... unusual though. Not every werewolf can do a partial shift as far as I know." He carded his fingers through Furball's hair as the other averted his gaze. He wasn't sure what else to say, Furball mentioning "them" made his blood boil again and the fact that they had forced him to shift made it even worse. How often did he have to shift to forget what form he was currently in? 

The doorbell interrupted his thoughts and he sat back, dropping his hands to his lap. 

Furball growled. Loud. 

"Woah. That's just the pizza delivery." Tony quickly said.

It was strange hearing such a sound coming out from a (mostly) human man. One that was wrapped in a blanket on top of that. Equally strange was the soft whine that followed when Furball ducked his head deeper into said blanket, messing up his hair again. 

Tony smiled and gave his head one last pet before getting up, stretching his stiff limbs and then heading to the door to recieve the long awaited pizza. Furball really hadn't been kidding about getting his forms confused, the wolf mannerisms were certainly still present in his human form. For some reason Tony found that extremely adorable.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Content Warning for this chapter: The whole chapter is about them eating pizza, so if you rather not read about that you can skip this chapter. There is no plot in this one.]

The pizza delivery was huge. Tony had completely forgotten that the Avengers' order also featured three huge bags of pizza rolls and a couple of salads. The delivery man had been instructed to just leave the whole order in front of the house and then leave again. Tony always paid up front, JARVIS did anyway, so there was no need for Tony to interact with the guy. They usually were pretty star struck and he'd rather not pose for a selfie right now. 

Tony was just about to figure out how to best tetris arrange the goods to carry back into the living room when he heard a soft shuffling and Furball appeared beside him a moment later. 

"Good, you're here. Mind taking those bags and the salads? I'll carry the pizzas."

"This smells so good..." Furball said, he still had the blanket wrapped around his shoulders.

Tony handed him his share and laughed. "Let's get back inside and dig in." 

Together they carried their food haul back and Tony arranged the pizzas and salads on the table, opening all of them up. Tony grabbed a slice of his own pizza and took a generous bite, gobbling up the cheesy goodness. 

Furball had settled on the couch again, blanket pulled tightly around himself. He was looking longingly at the food on the table but made no move to actually take any. He had completely withdrawn again, his ears flat against his head. 

"You remember what I said about food?" Tony asked before taking another bite, but Furball remained still.

The guy needed therapy, Tony thought, if a simple reminder didn't do it and he still wanted permission to eat the food that had been put in front him, that was some serious trauma that needed to be addressed. "Eat." Tony simply said, he nudged the pizza carton a little bit closer to Furball and finally the man unfolded from his blanket cocoon and reached out for the food. 

Timidly at first and only with his right hand, keeping the metal one in his lap, but the pizza proofed too difficult to take with just one hand and he had to use his other one as well to stabilize the slice. It was obvious that he didn't like touching the food with it, he used only the very tips of his fingers to balance the pointy end of the slice. 

Furball looked to Tony once he had it in his hands, eyes questioning once again, and Tony took another bite from his own to show how it's done, nodding as he chewed and cracking a smile even as he felt dismayed. Furball's relationship with food was horrible, but after a few seconds Furball followed suit and bit into his pizza.

It was amazing how Furball's expression changed from apprehensive and doubtful to surprised in a matter of seconds as he chewed and finally swallowed. He stared at the pizza slice in his hands, the cheese was running down his metal hand but he didn't seem to notice. Then without warning stuffed almost all of the remaining slice into his mouth in one go and reached for another one before he had even finished chewing.

"That good, huh?" Tony asked around the soft cheese in his mouth and Furball nodded eagerly, but then he stopped, looking horrified. 

"Can I..." He asked, his hand hovering over the pizza carton. Tony had to stop himself from screaming in frustration, instead he nodded. 

"You can eat as much as you want."

With permission granted Furball attacked the pizza with vigor and the second slice was gone as fast as the first one. 

At this point Tony feared that there wouldn't be anything left from his cheese pizza for his own enjoyment judging by the pace at which Furball went through the slices. After Furball's second slice of the cheese pizza he paused though and looked over the table and the assorted foods. 

Furball grew more confident after that and picked out what he wanted to try. He systematically tried one slice of each pizza before moving on the next and eventually even opened the bag of pizza rolls without asking Tony first. Only occasionally did he glance to Tony, like he feared Tony would change his mind any second and take away the food. Tony was able eat more of his own pizza while watching Furball go through the majority of the other things. Getting the Avenger's order had been a good idea. Furball seemed to prefer the meat pizzas, taking second slices from the pepperoni and the meatball pizzas, but skipping over the one with pineapples and the sardines on this second round. There were also the very content noises he made when he bit into a fresh slice. 

"You should try the salads." Tony suggested. "Balance out all the grease a bit." Half the pizzas were already gone, the guy would give Steve and Thor a run for their money that was sure.

"This stuff?" Furball pointed at the salad boxes. "Isn't that just leaves?" He looked confused.

Tony snorted a laugh at that, it probably wasn't funny that the man didn't know what exactly a salad is, but he did look adorable the way he crinkled his nose at it, like the greens offended him. "Not quite but you're not completely off. It can be delicious if you put the dressing on it though. Those little sachets there. Yes, those. Just rip them open and pour it over."

Furball tried just that but opening a tiny plastic sachet with a metal hand doused in grease was impossible. He made a soft frustrated sound when the little sachet slipped from his fingers and landed on the floor. The metal fingers were also rounded at the tips and not very useful for holding onto delicate things. 

They could have at least given him something akin to fingernails, Tony thought. Something in the back of his head already started designing a blueprint for an upgraded version of the arm. A more practical one, maybe he could design a synthetic skin too, he'd have to do some research for that.

"Let me help you."

He put down his pizza and scooted up next to Furball, picking up the dropped dressing. Their knees and shoulders were touching now and Tony didn't miss how Furball tensed the moment it happened. He was in the process of wiping the grease from this left hand with a napkin but stopped abruptly. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. It only lasted a moment before Furball opened his eyes again and looked at Tony sheepishly. 

The smell, right, Tony remembered. He picked up the salad and positioned it in his lap, then shook the sachet to avoid a mess when opening it.

"Here, like this." He tore off the corner and poured the dressing over the salad, then mixed it with the plastic fork that came with it. Tony held the container out for Furball to take. The werewolf still looked sceptical but accepted the offered salad and fork. 

"And you sure this is edible?" He asked, sniffing a piece of lettuce. He didn't wait for an answer though and put the green leaf into his mouth. After only a few bites he pulled an incredibly disgusted face and looked at Tony. "I don't like it." 

Tony laughed. "You don't have to eat it. Don't worry."

Furball set the salad container down on the table again, pushing it far away from himself. 

"I'd rather eat the pizzas..." 

"Knock yourself out. Which one do you like the best?" 

"Definitely that one." Furball pointed to the meat ball pizza. "The meatballs are delicious, but this one - " He pointed to the pepperoni one. "- what's it called? Also very good. I wish they were both together... on one pizza. You know what I mean?" He looked excited talking about it and Tony noticed how his ears had perked up and twitched occasionally.

"Next time when we order we can get you a custom pizza with both things on it, but for now..." Tony reached out and plucked a slice of the pepperoni pizza from the almost empty carton. "You know what...there are no rules for how you eat a pizza. Let's just combine them this way." Clint would probably try to murder him for what Tony was about to do, but he turned the slice in his hand upside down and dropped it onto the meat ball one. 

"Try it like this. I shall call it a pizzawich - a pizza sandwich. Not a fan of the meatballs myself but you're a total meat guy, aren't you? Probably a werewolf thing." 

Furball had watched him with wide eyes and took the strange composition eagerly. 

"I should patent that I think, what do you think? Any good?" 

"Mhhmm." Furball mumbled around a full mouth, he closed his eyes and let out a groan. "My god...make another one." He hadn't even finished the one in his hands but Furball looked eager to get more of Tony's new creation. 

After such a difficult start to actually getting Furball to eat anything it surprised Tony that food was a thing that he was very excited to talk about, he was eager to try new things, his stomach seemingly bottomless. Tony showed him the dips for the pizza rolls and how they can be used with the pizza as well. No rules, he kept repeating, and Furball even gave the salads another try after almost all the pizza was gone. 

Tony stayed next to Furball. It was easier to show him things like this, he told himself, but he hoped that maybe the closeness and his smell calmed the other down and made him realize that there really was nothing to fear. There was no punishment coming for eating anything without permission. But Tony didn't have the apparent super human ability to stow away almost five pizzas and then some so he leaned back contently, rubbing his full stomach. Furball soon mimicked him when he was done, he pulled his legs up under himself and let his his head rest on Tony's shoulder. 

Tony wrapped his arm around the other's shoulder and played with his hair. Furball sighed contently and after a few minutes spent in comfortable silence Tony felt an increase in weight on his side, Furball had relaxed.


	18. Chapter 18

Tony's whole left side was numb. As it turned out Furball was quite heavy and Tony's shoulder could only take so much even after a such a pizza feast. He should have figured, the guy was basically 83% pure muscle, 17% metal, plus maybe an additional 20% pizza Tony reckoned. He tried to stretch a little but Furball pinned him down really good and in addition to the heavy weight his arm was stuck behind the other, his hand still tangled in Furball's hair. 

He had been stroking the side of Furball's head and scratching his ears while he rested and had found it a strange sensation to trail along Furball's jaw and not encounter a human ear there. Of course his wolf ears were further up on his head, it made sense, but he couldn't help himself and rub the empty spot over and over again. The way Furball's head rested on Tony's shoulder meant that every time he did that the werewolf's ears would twitch and tickle Tony's cheek.

It was late morning now going on noon and Tony really felt the influence of sun even as it was blocked by the darkened windows and blinds. He scratched Furball's ear a little more intensely trying to wake him up.

"I'm ready to get some sleep in a real bed and I've got a nice guest room waiting for you. What do you say?" 

Furball shifted a little and Tony's side started tingling as the weight was lifted from it and blood started to return to it. 

"Alright." Furball said, looking disappointed. His ears twitched sadly. 

Tony ruffled his hair a last time before getting up and stretching his sore muscles. 

"I only get the most comfortable beds, way better than the couch. And... I mean you don't have to sleep if you don't want to, you're free to explore the house, JARVIS can give you a tour. I have to get a couple of hours in as much as I hate it. Vampire and high sun and all that, really annoying." When he looked back over the mess on the table Tony noticed he hadn't even finished the glass of blood from earlier, maybe that had something to do with how tired he felt. But with how long that stuff had been out of the fridge he wasn't going to drink it now and he was too lazy to get a new one.

Tony led them to a guestroom close to his own private bedroom. It was the same guestroom that Tony had stuck Furball into when he had first shifted into his human form, to get dressed and cleaned up. There were half a dozen other bedroom on this floor alone some more lavish even, but he felt it was good to keep things consistent for Furball, so he knew that he had a place that was his. 

"Here you go, all yours." Tony gestured around the large room which featured a king sized bed, a flat screen TV that covered almost the entire wall and a nicely decorated seating area with a few bookshelves. "You can watch TV, read a book, browse the internet. I hope you know what the internet is, if not you can ask JARVIS." He swayed slightly in the doorway, the sight of the bed made it even harder for him to stay awake. "JARVIS is your best friends when it comes to explaining things. Isn't that right, J."

"Of course, Sir."

Furball stood beside him, shoulders hunched and head downcast, he hesitantly glanced into the room making no move to enter it and when Tony started to walk away the werewolf shuffled after him gluing himself to Tony's heels. Tony almost bumped into him when he turned around, he was standing that close. He hadn't said a word since they left the living room but it was obvious he wasn't comfortable with the situation. Furball had his face turned away and his hair was doing a god job of hiding most of it but Tony could still make out the fear and unease on it.

"It's just gonna be a couple of hours, I don't need much sleep and I'm just in the other room." Tony started and because his brain had already half shut down he wrapped his arms around the taller man and pulled him into a hug. "It's gonna be alright. Just rest." He rubbed a few circles on Furball's back, the man was only wearing a sweater and Tony was able to feel the smooth metal from the arm coming all the way to where his shoulder blade should have been. He wasn't sure if he should avoid the area or not and his sleep clouded brain wouldn't give him an answer so he just continued what he was doing and they stayed like that for a short moment. "You're gonna be alright." The werewolf shivered lightly.

Furball still looked uneasy but he nodded when Tony pulled back and looked at him. Tony gave him a few pats on the shoulder for good measure and then headed to his own bedroom, this time Furball didn't follow. There was a small part in him that wished he had. 

Undressing, getting into bed and pulling the blanket over himself took only a few seconds for Tony and he was out like a light. Maybe he should have drunken more blood, maybe he could have stayed up a little longer, god he hated being a vampire for this fact alone. The sun, for all the good things it did, making the planet viable for humans etc., it really had no business messing with his sleep schedule. That was his and his alone to mess with. 

Or JARVIS' as it turned out when the electronic butler woke him up with a very polite but insistent "Sir." 

Tony's eyes almost rolled into the back of his head as he tried to fight the haze of sleep. "What?" 

"Mr. Furball has been outside your room for the last ten minutes, I have insisted he go back to his own room but he is ignoring me." JARVIS sounded mildly annoyed. 

"Does he need anything?"

"As I said. I have been ignored." 

Tony groaned into the pillow. "Furball?" It was barely a mumble but he was sure JARVIS would translate it for the man outside his door.

Said door opened slowly, the hallway was dark now so Tony could only make out the silhouette of the werewolf. JARVIS lightened the room just the tiniest bit like he had read Tony's mind. 

Furball had his head down but his eyes were scanning the room, his hands worrying at the edge of his sweater. He was looking like he was about to say something the way he chewed on his inner cheek so Tony waited and gave him the time he needed, not like he was able to form any words himself right now. His mind was still foggy.

"Can I..." Furball started then stopped and took a deep breath. "Can I stay in here?" 

Tony was suddenly wide awake when his brain registered the words. 

Furball took a step back at his reaction and began stuttering.

"I'll stay outside... In front of the door. I'll just... " He started pulling his sweater off and just like the last time the werewolf had done it Tony's mind went haywire at the sight of toned muscles and yes he was in his bed and a good looking man was undressing in his bed room and oh god he was taking off his pants too.

Only when Furball literally started to sprout fur and got down on all fours did Tony's mind return to normal brainwaves. Furball was shifting and it was just as mesmerizing as the first time Tony had witnessed it. 

"Uh." Tony said intelligently as he watched muscles rearrange and metal plates calibrating. It didn't take long until a large black wolf was standing were a man had been only a minute earlier. He was still staring as the wolf slowly walked backwards and grasped the door knob between his teeth and pulled the door closed, leaving Tony alone in the bedroom. He heard the large canine shuffle around in front of the door before everything went silent again.

Tony sank back into the pillows and sighed. The guy had some abandonment issues, Tony thought, but there wasn't much he could do about it. He had offered him a room and entertainment while Tony got some shut eye and he was free to decide how to use his time. Sleep was calling him again but a thought he had earlier came blaring in uninvited and his eyes shot open. 

"He's lying in front of the door. On the fucking floor, isn't he?" 

"Yes, Sir." 

"Who does he think he is, a god damn guard dog? Furball, get in here." Tony rubbed both hands over his face. No way in hell was he going to let Furball sleep on the floor again, the guy deserved better.

There was some scratching, gnawing and soft whining coming from the door. Right, no thumbs, Tony thought and rolled over, prepared to get out of bed to open the door just as Furball burst into the room. Tony didn't want to know how the doorknob looked now and hoped JARVIS was ordering a new one already.

Furball was at the side of the bed instantly, whining pitifully, tail between his legs and ears flat on his head. He rested his chin on the mattress next to Tony and looked at him with those same light grey eyes he also has as a human. It was easy to tell he was distressed, he was so much more open with his emotions as a werewolf, Tony noticed.

He lightly stroked over Furball's head, smoothing out the soft fur. 

"Come on, Fluffball, bed's big enough for both of us." With that Tony scooted to one side of the bed and made room for the wolf. Furball wasn't so eager to jump up though and he stepped in place at the side of the bed looking at Tony anxiously. Right, clearer instructions, hints were only useful when the other knew what to do with them. Tony berated himself. 

"Up on the bed with you." Tony patted the empty space next to him for emphasis and this time Furball didn't have to be told twice. With an elegant leap the huge wolf jumped onto the bed. The mattress dipped considerably under the added weight and Furball started sniffing on the pillows and the sheets. Probably heaven for werewolves obsessed with Tony Stark's scent, Tony mused as he watched the werewolf stick his nose under the pillow before turning around in circles a couple of times and then finally settle down. 

Furball rested his head on his right front paw looking up at Tony, he had his left leg curled under himself, his tail was going haywire and when Tony ruffled the fur between his ears he closed his eyes and stuck out his tongue. Tony took it as a sign of contentment and closed his eyes as well, finally relaxing again. 

It had been some time since someone had slept in his bed and he hadn't known how much he missed having a warm body next to him. Even if this one was a very large fluffy wolf. He left his hand buried in the soft fur on Furball's head and fell asleep, thinking he could get used to this.


	19. Chapter 19

It wasn't that Tony didn't like sleeping. Rationally he knew sleeping was necessary to regenerate energy and the brain needed the downtime to process information. Sleeping on it's own was a good thing. It was what happened besides that was at best annoying and at worst downright terrifying. 

He was back in Afghanistan. The blazing sun was burning down on him, he could feel his skin melting from the heat. There was nowhere to hide, just mountains of sand forming waves. He could feel the grains digging into his skin each as hot as a molten ball of metal. He was burning, burning, he was burning up, he couldn't breath. 

He gasped, eyes shooting open. He was in the cave. He gasped but couldn't breath. His lungs didn't work, something was pressing down on his chest. It hurt, it hurt so much. Yinsen was there, leaning over him and -

\- licking him.

Tony's eyes shot open for a second time. This time he was in his bedroom and a wet tongue was slobbering his neck. He took a shaky breath, his lungs taking in the air with ease, and wrapped his arm around Furball and buried his face in the wolf's soft fur. 

"Thank, buddy." He mumbled and got a got a soft whine in response. "I'm alright..." He assured the other as much as himself. 

The werewolf nuzzled his cold nose into the crook of Tony's neck and gave him another tentative lick. Tony was extremely grateful for the comfort, someone to hold onto. Furball was a solid weight next to him, yet soft and warm. The wolf's heartbeat was steady against his own chest and soon his own rapid one calmed down. 

"I'm alright..." Tony said again this time he mostly believed it. 

The memory of the nightmare faded away and Tony fell asleep again, hands and face buried deep in the werewolf's fur, using him as a surrogate pillow. 

They both got another couple of hours of sleep lying together, limbs entangled until a loud beeping rang through the bedroom. 

Tony blinked awake and nuzzled the head he was resting against, it seemed a little off but the hair was soft and smelled like Furball, a fluffy ear was twitching against his cheek. He didn't dwell on it. His brain was focused on the annoying noise that was penetrating the comfortable silence that they had been snuggling in until recently. 

"J?" He mumbled. "Turn that off." 

"It's on a secure line, Sir."

"What did I hire you for, JARVIS?" Tony made to grab his phone on the bedside table without actually moving too much.

"You did not hire me, Sir." 

"Smartass." He got his fingers on the slim phone and squinted at it. It was an unknown number, which was strange, usually JARVIS detected who was calling. It could only mean one thing. 

"Nat?" Tony held the phone between two fingers and the screen came alive, showing what looked like a ceiling for a moment before a wall of red hair came into view and Natasha was looking down at him, frowning.

"Had fun last night?" 

"Huh?" Tony needed moment, blinking some sleep from his eyes before he focused on the image in the top right of the screen that showed what he was broadcasting to Nat. He had his arm around a very human and very naked Furball, whose head was resting on Tony's bare chest just next to the arc reactor. Furball was definitely awake and looking up at the phone with his steel grey eyes narrowed, his ears twitching nervously. There was no hiding the fact that they were both looking very naked, despite Tony actually wearing some underwear under the covers. 

"It's not what it looks like."

"I don't care for your escapades, Stark. SHIELD is compromised." Natasha stated matter of factly, like she was just talking about the weather. She wasn't looking at the phone anymore but at something off screen. "We're going to take them down." The phone was moving and Nat came back into view, she was walking fast. 

"What? I thought you went to DC because someone tried to kill Fury. Bring me up to date, Nat."

"There was an assassination attempt. Cap got the sniper, broke his jaw before the guy could bite the cyanide. The guy spilled everything after I got my hands on him. Bloody amateur."

She stopped for a moment and looked directly into the camera.

"It's HYDRA, Tony. SHIELD is HYDRA. And they are planning to eliminate everyone that's in their way with Project Insight. Alexander Pierce is in on it, we're on the way to the Triskelion to stop him. We don't know what else they have planned, they have the Strike teams under control. You can't trust anyone at SHIELD." 

Pierce, councilman of the World Security Council, was HYDRA? Wait, Tony's mind backtracked a few moments to go over the fact that HYDRA, the nazi organisation Captain America himself dismantled during World War II, was still active and using SHIELD as cover. SHIELD had been founded by his own father and Peggy Carter in the aftermath of the war and HYDRA's downfall. There was no way they had been undermined back then already, was there? He shook the thought from his mind, he could investigate later, turn everything on its head, find the cause... right now he needed to act.

The worst part was that Tony knew Natasha wasn't lying or trying to pull his leg, if you could trust a former Russian spy in one thing then that they didn't fuck around when it came to destroying someone's world view in one fell swoop.

Tony sat up, any sign of tiredness instantly gone. "I can be there in 25 minutes. J, get the suit - " 

Another shrill noise interrupted Tony once more. This time it was the alarm that sounded through the mansion.

"Intruder alert, Sir." JARVIS provided ever so helpfully. "It's a SHIELD Strike team. They're approaching the mansion."

"What? How did they get in?" The automatic defense system should have kept them at bay and off his property. Natasha had just mentioned those traitors and now they were at his door steps.

"The turret Mr. Furball broke. It is still down." 

Tony cursed, why hadn't he replaced it? It had been two days already, he was such an idiot. He threw the covers off of himself, anything Natasha said after that was lost to his ears as he dropped the phone on his bed. He needed to get to the Iron Man suit immediately. 

JARVIS spoke again and Tony stopped in his tracks. "Sir, they have stopped in front of the porch and are demanding Mr. Furball be released into their custody." 

"Wait what?" 

Tony whirled around to look at the bed, Furball wasn't in it anymore, he hadn't even noticed when he had gotten up. Instead he was huddled in the corner, pressing himself into it as far as possible, holding his head with both hands. His whole body was shaking violently. Tony took a step towards him, reaching out. His first thought had been that the Strike team wanted to stop him from going to DC. What did they want with Furball?

"Hey, buddy, I'm not gonna let them, alright?" He tried to calm the other, slowly moving towards him. The werewolf's reaction reminded him painfully of Furball's episode in the lab yesterday. Overwhelmed with what was happening, probably confused as well.Tony barely had an idea about what on earth was going on right now himself, he couldn't imagine how the werewolf felt.

Events were overturning and he didn't appreciate it one bit. He wanted to get into the suit and kick some ass, he just didn't know which ass he was going to kick first. The supposed Strike team had to go, Furball wasn't save here if he left for DC now, but he didn't know how dire the situation was at the Triskelion right now. SHIELD or rather HYDRA would probably come up with some bullshit excuse to enter the mansion and initiate a fight. 

"Sir." JARVIS interrupted his thoughts. "The SHIELD agents have revealed some information that will be of interest to you. Regarding Mr. Furball."

Tony was focused on Furball. He didn't know if he should touch the other, the werewolf had been very tactile before and even sought his presence. It stood to reason physical comfort would calm Furball down, but he had his left side turned to Tony and was covering his head with his metal arm. He was reasonably certain that Furball wouldn't hurt him on purpose but who knew what could happen when the werewolf was startled. 

"And what would that be?" Tony couldn't care less what the supposed agents had to say.

"Sir," JARVIS sounded exasperated. He was using the voice he used when he was about to say something Tony didn't want to hear.

"Mr. Furball is a wanted HYDRA agent." 

"What?" Tony pulled his hand back like he had just touched something hot. He stared at Furball. That had to be a bluff. They were just fucking with him, those bastards, they had to.

"Furball?" He tried softly and the werewolf became eerily still. The shaking had stopped and he was taking long deep breaths, every muscle in his back was tense and suddenly the metal arm recalibrated, the plates moving over each other until settling into place again. Tony followed the movement up to Furball's wrist where the metal fingers slowly curled into a fist. 

He took a step back, his own heart betrayed him and pounded against his rib cage making his chest hurt. He tried to will himself to stay calm, but the back of his leg hit the edge of the bed and he yelped.

Furball jerked his head around at the noise and suddenly Tony couldn't breath. He was frozen to the spot. Furball was staring at him, looking up through the strands of hair, his eyes glowing with barely contained rage, as he narrowed them on Tony.

"I'm the fist of HYDRA." He finally said.

"I remember."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~~Scared to post this urgh~~


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Description of past torture, canon level of violence by HYDRA

Hydra.

HYDRA.

The black and red image of a skull flooded his mind. 

"You're the fist of HYDRA." The man had said. He smelled bad, reeked of evil. 

The soldier had sneered and the man had hit him across the face. They had put him in the chair, strapped his arms down and put the needle into his flesh hand. He had felt dizzy, it hadn't been the usual cocktail they put into him. 

"You're going to test out something new for a little while." The doctor had said and grinned.

It had been the last time they had allowed him to be human before everything in his memory went blurry and red. 

Whatever they had pumped into him forced him to shift against his will. It had hurt so bad, he had tried to resist but they had burned him with the prods and at the end of it he had lied there panting heavily. The man had looked down on him, their faces distorted into grimaces, then the collar had been locked around his neck and they had thrown him in a cage. 

A cage so small he couldn't even lie down and stretch out. The wolf had paced around the tiny space, tried to shift back to his human form but his body didn't comply. He had snarled and barked at everyone coming close to him until their prods had turned him into a lump of limp muscles, fur and pain. 

They worked on the collar. His will to shift had wavered and the fear of the prods had made him compliant. They couldn't use the chair on him as a wolf so they had turned to other methods.

He had been sent out in the field, let loose on people. They said hunt and kill and he complied. His wolf mind knew nothing else and he panted for the next throat that he could sink his fangs into. 

He could still taste the blood in his mouth. 

They were happy when he returned, they patted his back and he wagged his tail at them. They laughed and threw him into the small cage, gave him a bowl of dog food. 

Furball came back to reality, his world filled with red as he focused on Tony's terrified face. That was it, they were here to take him back, throw him back into the cage, hit him with the prods again and they were going to hurt Tony in the process. He wasn't going to let that happen, he was going to go back to them and safe Tony, but he wouldn't go without a fight. He sneered at the thought of tasting blood again but it would be HYDRA's blood this time.

The shift triggered almost instantly and he pushed past Tony and leaped over the bed, landing on all fours just as the last of his fur sprouted. The shift had been too quick to be comfortable and completely painless but he didn't care. The metal arm took another couple of seconds to adjust and then he punched through the glass door to the balcony. He squeezed through the hole not caring that bits of glass got stuck in his fur, it was thick enough to protect his skin. 

He could smell them from here, their disgusting scent was wafting from the front of the mansion, he recognized some of them. They were his handlers, had been his handlers, he corrected himself. Tony was his handler now and he had to protect him. Furball tried to figure out how many there were, their smells mingled with each other, one more foul then the other. He figured at least ten plus some machinery, he could smell the gasoline, some quads maybe. Did they think he would run? 

Furball was certain he could take out at least half of them before the other's reacted if he was careful with his approach. They didn't know he wasn't their stray anymore, they didn't know he had a home now. A home he was going to protect, no matter the cost. 

Maybe he even came out of this alive. 

He let out a low growl, his mind was set now, he was going to take them out. 

Crouching low he tensed his muscles preparing to jump the banister and land on the ground below, but just as he leaped he felt something tug on his fur. No, not something - someone! 

"Oh no, you don't!" 

Tony! Furball felt the weight of the man hitting his back, arms wrapped around his neck and this was wrong, so wrong. Tony needed to be safe, he had to stay behind, he couldn't fight!

But it was too late he was already in the air and the ground was getting closer fast.


	21. Chapter 21

Not the best idea he ever had, Tony thought as he clung to a giant werewolf flying through the air wearing nothing but his boxer shorts. The sun was hitting his bare back and tiny bits of glass were poking his skin. A really bad idea, he corrected himself, when Furball landed on the ground and his whole body shook from the impact. The werewolf cushioned the fall by landing in a low crouch but his muscles were hard as rock and did nothing to soften the blow for his passenger. 

Furball growled deep in his throat and stayed in his crouch, not moving at all, his whole body vibrating from the tension. Tony relaxed a little bit, he feared the werewolf would turn on him, the way he had looked in the bed room. The rage had practically dripping from his eyes, but there had also been something else. Recognition - Furball had remembered something and the way he had taken off after JARVIS had revealed he had been with HYDRA had Tony worried the werewolf was going to return to them. He couldn't let that happen. 

The suit had to be ready at any second and it was desperately needed, there was no cloud cover and the afternoon sun was burning down on Tony, another thing he hadn't considered when clinging onto Furball. It wouldn't kill him, but it was going to start to get really uncomfortable and eventually really painful if he stayed out in sunlight any longer and it was draining his energy levels fast. He suddenly really regretted not going for another drink of blood at the end of the night earlier. 

Suddenly Furball shook himself, not hard enough to throw Tony off but definitely enough to get the point across that he wanted his rider to dismount. Tony tightened his grip around the werewolf's neck. 

"You're not going back to them. I'm not letting you." He was counting on Furball's good nature and the tiny bit of trust they had built up over the past days that the werewolf was not going to kill him now. He counted it as a good sign that he wasn't putting more effort into getting rid of him.

Furball shook his head, trying again to dislodge Tony and a couple of times more and Tony would have gone flying because it took all of his strength to hold onto the wolf. 

Yelling from the front of the mansion drew their attention, it was soon joined by the roaring of engines and the noise quickly came closer, three agents with drawn guns on quads raced around the corner followed closely by more agents wielding assault rifles.

They were heading straight for them. 

"Fuck, JARVIS, now would be a good time." Tony looked back to the mansion and the sight of the suit bursting through the window would have been great but nothing. He doubted JARVIS even heard him out here, he didn't have his phone with him, but if the AI was piloting the suit he should find him without problem. 

Furball growled again, looking at the nearing agents on the all-terrain vehicles, and then he suddenly took off, the movement almost dislodging Tony. He ran at top speed but not towards the aggressors like Tony had thought, no, he was running across the garden of the mansion away from the agents and towards the wide expanse of forest that was bordering Tony's property.

Retreat, yes, retreat was good, Tony thought, just as the agents opened fire on them. The bullets zipped past and it took everything Tony had not to let go of Furball and fall off. The werewolf was leaping over fences and walls, zig-zagging through the garden finally reaching the ring of turrets, beyond those they would be safe. They were designed to keep people out but they would recognize the fake SHIELD agents as intruders and return fire. And finally after an eternity Tony heard the familiar buzzing sound of his suit's repulsors, now he could fight back and clean up this mess, he only had to get into the suit and for that he had to get off Furball in one piece, except the werewolf showed no sign of slowing down. 

Tony tried to pat him, tried to tug on his fur, yelled against the wind for Furball to stop but either he was completely on auto pilot and didn't notice Tony anymore or he deliberately ignored him. 

They reached the tree line and it gave at least a tiny bit of comfort to Tony to not have the blazing sun burning the skin of his back and his legs anymore as they entered the shadowed forest, but the small relief was soon overshadowed by the twigs and branches hitting him instead when Furball broke through the underbrush. All Tony could do was keep his head down and protect his face while he listened to the automatic fire of the Iron Man suit fighting the HYDRA agents behind them. At least JARVIS was having his back. As for Furball, it felt more like he was being kidnapped by the werewolf right now, there was no way he could get off without getting seriously hurt.

Tony didn't know how long he had been clinging to Furball, he didn't seem to slow down, there were brief periods where Tony didn't feel anything hitting his skin, sometimes he felt the sun again but mostly they were traveling in the shade. The sound of bullets and explosion had long faded before Furball made any notion to slow down, Tony couldn't look up, if he moved now he would fall off and pass out from exhaustion. He could do nothing else but hold on.

He was so... /thirsty/. 

Eventually the werewolf stopped and crouched and Tony simply slid down into the cold dirt, he felt Furball nudge his head with his snout but he passed out a second later. 

When he came to he could tell at once that some considerable time had passed as it was turning night. It was something. The second thing he noticed was that his whole body was numb and slightly wet. Furball was licking across the many tiny cuts on his skin and it felt really soothing until he remembered where he was and who was responsible for how he got there. 

Tony scrambled backwards and got himself into a sitting position, Furball whined and ducked down, making himself as small as possible. 

"You want a fucking cookie? Did you try to get me killed?" Fuck, he was in the middle of nowhere with a traitor werewolf and practically naked, he should have just stayed in the bedroom and get into the suit and blast HYDRA into oblivion.

Furball whined again, inching just the tiniest bit closer, head flat on the ground between his paws. 

"And what now? We wait for HYDRA to pick us up?" That got Furball out of the defensive and he lunged forward, Tony pulled back, bracing for an attack that didn't come, instead Furball eagerly licked across his face and Tony was barely able to push him back.

"Okay, I am a little bit confused right now and you know I don't like that. Are we still good? Because I vaguely recall we cuddled in bed this morning and this whole kidnapping thing and dragging me through the woods isn't really fitting in with that picture."

Furball just looked at him with those steel grey eyes, ears flat against his head. Communication was again a problem, they really had to work on that. "You know what, just... scratch the ground once for yes and twice for no and now I want to know if you have any intention of going back to HYDRA."

Two scratches. 

"Alright, that's good enough for me." Tony was relieved albeit still confused but communicating with Furball now was complicated and exhausting and he was too tired for anything other than maybe passing out again. He really needed some blood to drink or else his body could not heal all the cuts and bruises. He wasn't seriously hurt and under normal circumstances he'd probably not even stop working in this condition but along with the sun exposure and nothing to drink his body threatened to just go into hibernation mode to conserve energy. 

Tony scrambled and groaned his way to the nearest tree and gingerly leaned against it, not the best idea with his back practically raw but the ground wasn't an option either. Furball came closer again, walking around him agitated, the werewolf seemed to have endless energy even after running for who knows how long. 

"You don't have any blood vials on you by any chance, do you?" Tony would bite something living at this point even if he didn't know how exactly that worked having never done it before, he never needed to nor did he have the desire to. He'd figure it out, he was a genius after all, but chances were nothing was going to come his way anytime soon anyway. Maybe he could ask Furball to let him drink, he was sure the werewolf would comply at this point but Bruce's words were still in his mind. Werewolves and vampires just don't mix.

Furball didn't answer as expected but his behaviour changed, he started sniffing the ground around them, looking for something, then focused in on one direction and started to walk away from Tony.

"Hey, don't leave me here, the least you can do is carry me back!" Tony tried to get up, is body protesting and somehow Furball was back in front of him, gently nudging him down. Tony stayed were he was, having no energy to fight.

Then the werewolf looked at him imploringly and placed his right front paw on Tony's chest. He nodded awkwardly, like he was trying to mimic human behaviour, before turning around, walking in the same direction again. Tony didn't make an attempt to follow this time, he got the hint.

Furball only looked back once before disappearing into the trees and leaving Tony behind.


	22. Chapter 22

The sun was setting after a while and Tony was still alone in the forest. It was getting colder and he had nothing to cover himself, in his weakened state Tony felt the cold seeping into his bones. He started to shiver and desperately wished Furball would come back if only so he could bury in the soft warm fur. He didn't know if the werewolf would ever come back, for all he knew he had gone off for good and he was on his own. 

All he could do was wait. He wouldn't die, not soon anyway, but he was already hurting from being so thirsty and drained. The tiny cuts and bruises all over his body only added to his misery. Tony curled up against the tree and tried to get some rest but the cold and the unfamiliar noises of the forest kept him on high alert. 

It seemed like forever until a louder noise startled Tony. He pressed himself against the tree looking into the direction of the rustling. Small twigs were breaking and whatever was in the bushes was certainly big. 

A second later a large wolf came trotting through the underbrush and Tony relaxed immediately. Furball had come back and he came bearing presents. The werewolf was carrying a chicken in his mouth and dropped it in front of Tony, nudging it closer with his nose. 

It was clearly already dead, its neck sticking up in an unnatural angle but it didn't have any other injuries otherwise. Was he supposed to eat it? Drink its blood? 

Furball lied down, placing his head on top of his front legs and looking up at him expectantly looking for all what it was worth like a puppy bringing a present to his human. Tony was a little overwhelmed, he had never drunk blood from something other than a glass. It couldn't be that hard, could it? Thousands of vampires did it every day. 

"Thanks, buddy." Tony reached out and ruffled the soft fur between the wolf's ears before gingerly picking up the chicken. It was still warm and Tony wondered where Furball had gotten it, maybe there was a free range chicken farm close by. In this moment Tony didn't care, he turned the chicken over and started ripping out the feathers. He was getting frantic now, the blood was so close and he was so so thirsty. As soon as he had a decent size patch of skin free he sank his fangs into the luke warm body and drank greedily. He felt his strength return immediately as his thirst was sated. The chicken was drained way too fast but it would be enough, for now. 

Tony dropped the carcass and leaned back against the tree, wiping the last few droplets of blood from his lips and sucking his fingers clean. Euphoria was coursing through his veins and suddenly the whole situation wasn't all that bad. He was sated, his wounds were healing slowly and the blood was warming him from the inside. He was so high from his meal he didn't even flinch when Furball teared into the rest of the chicken and gulped it down in two bites, feathers and bones and all. 

"You were hungry too, huh? You're a good friend, Furball, you just wanted to safe me, didn't you?" 

The werewolf scooted closer and dropped his head into Tony's lap, sticking his tongue out contently. Tony started playing with the tufts of fur on the tip of his ears and leaned his head back. He would have to think of something soon, he couldn't stay in the forest for very long and he didn't know how the situation at the mansion had turned out. JARVIS should have taken care of the HYDRA agents in no time and started to look for him, unless something had happened to the suit. Tony didn't want to think about that, he much preferred the option that Furball had simply taken them too far for JARVIS to have found them yet. For all he knew they were 20 miles and more from the mansion, that was a lot of ground to cover. 

An hour later Furball had curled himself around Tony, his thick fur provided some much needed warmth for the almost naked man as the night progressed. His fluffy tail was practically a blanket albeit a somewhat itchy one. The darkness didn't bother Tony that much with the werewolf at his side

Furball was the first one to notice something was suddenly different when he perked up and started a low growl deep in his throat. 

"What's wrong?" Tony looked around but even his slightly enhanced senses couldn't pick up what Furball was hearing. It took several seconds before the familiar roaring of a quinjet became noticeable and a moment later the forest was flooded with artificial light for a second as the plane flew over head. 

"Finally." 

Tony scrambled to his feet or at least he tried. Furball had different plans and planted his right front paw on Tony's chest, pinning him to the ground. 

"Ey, those are the good guys... probably." Tony couldn't be sure it wasn't HYDRA coming for them but the blue and white figure wielding a shield that burst through the branches above them dispersed any doubts about that. Tony craned his neck at Captain America. 

"The man with a plan, hi." 

Steve looked pissed and Furball growled at him. A moment later a guy with wings landed next to the Captain and the whistling of two arrows indicated that Hawkeye was close behind. Suddenly the little space between the trees was illuminated brightly as one arrow imbedded itself in a tree. Tony knew these arrows would come in handy one day. The second arrow had a zip-line attached to it and then Clint came flying down after it and landed gracefully next to the Captain. 

"Awwwrrr Doggo," was the first thing he said before aiming an arrow at Furball. That guy had his priorities straight.

"That's a big wolf." The guy with the wings was now pointing double submachine guns at them. 

Steve took a step forward, squaring his shoulders. "It's an abomination."

"Nice to see you too." Tony just managed to say before Furball crouched low and covered him with his body, cutting Tony off with rapid barks towards his friends. 

Steve suddenly charged forward, shield up, ready to tackle Furball and Tony was helpless to watch through a curtain of fur, his face pressed against the werewolf's chest he barely had room to breath as Furball tensed above him, ready to fight.

"Get off of him, you disgusting creature!"


	23. Chapter 23

"Stop."

Natasha was suddenly in front of Steve, one hand on her pistol the other one firmly on his shield. Steve slid to a halt, letting out an angry groan. 

"Out of the way, Nat, that thing is going to tear him apart!" 

"No, he isn't. We're on the same side here."

"Can't you see? You of all people should know what werewolves are capable of." Steve tried to lunge again but again Natasha put herself in his way, her vampiric reflexes coming in handy. Tony couldn't see it but he was sure she was giving Steve her best 'cut out the bullshit' look. The captain was visibly struggling to not jump back into action and gave her an equally impressive glare. After a few tense seconds Steve lowered his shield and set his jaw.

Natasha kept her body between them, but glanced over her shoulder. "Tony, are you alright?" 

Tony struggled to get Furball's fur out of his face and especially his mouth, but freed himself enough to talk. "Yeah, uninjured, just a bit squished. 300 pounds of werewolf are no joke. Furball, please, they are my friends, can you get off me?"

Furball was still growling deep in his throat but stopped and gave a short confused whine, but he lifted his weight off of Tony as requested. Finally Tony was able to breath again, but his joy over fresh air was cut short when Furball licked over his face eagerly, covering him in slob. 

"Furball, please, let me get up." Tony was able to push the giant wolf to the side and suddenly he was hauled up by two strong hands and his face was pressed into a hard but warm surface that he recognized as Steve's broad chest. "Hi, Cap." Two logs of arms were wrapped around him and prevented him once again from getting a decent amount of air into his lungs.

"Tony, I thought I lost you too!" Steve said, his voice trembling. He pressed Tony against his chest, hugging him with all his might. "I thought I lost you. When I heard the werewolf was HYDRA..." Tony felt the other man suck in a shaky breath, his demeanor the complete opposite of the righteous Captain America that had just dominated the scene.

"Can't. Breath." 

"Oh my god, I am so sorry, Tony." Steve let go of him but kept his hands on his shoulders, he gave Tony a once over, his eyes lingering on the scratches and bruises. "He hurt you." 

"No...just... collateral damage." Tony assured him. "He didn't hurt me, quite the opposite. Steve, calm down." 

Steve was already starting to seethe again at the mere mention of Furball, glaring at the cowering werewolf.

Furball was crouched so low to the ground it almost looked like he was melting into it, he had his fangs bared and was growling softly, but it was obvious how scared he was. He resembled more of a terrified puppy than a fearsome werewolf. Clint and the other guy still had their weapons trained on him and Tony really had enough of this. 

Tony twisted out of Steve's grip and put himself between them and Furball. He knelt down besides the werewolf and patted his head and immediately Furball started to whine pitifully, trying to lick Tony's arm. 

"How about you put your weapons down and stop terrifying the poor guy." Furball was shaking like a leaf in the wind and Tony couldn't blame him. Without his "hostage" the others had no reason to hold back, if a fight was started now he would certainly lose against four Avengers three of which had guns. 

"Tony. Get away from him! He's HYDRA!" Steve was on his case again.

"He's not." Tony had tried to stay calm, he knew about Steve's dislike for werewolves and especially those used by HYDRA, but this was too much. "Can't you see he's terrified? He's not going to hurt anybody. He has been with me for several days now and hasn't hurt me once." Steve was going to protest again but Tony continued. "Shove your prejudices up your ass, Steve, you don't know him. He has been nothing but protective of me and he's not HYDRA."

"JARVIS said he was."

"He was their prisoner and he escaped." 

At this point Clint had lowered his bow and put his arrow back into his quiver. "You know, Cap, werewolves can't fake it in wolf form and that puppy is scared to death."

Steve looked like he was about to explode, he was visibly holding back and his new friend with the wings was casting him a doubtful look, waiting for instructions. Tony felt Furball vibrating under his hand and he leaned further down holding onto him with both hands to calm him down, he was glaring at Steve. The guy was unreasonable, he could see Furball was no danger to anyone right now. 

"You would be just as aggressive if you suddenly had three people with guns in front of you, yelling at you, when all you did was protect your friend. So cut it, Steve." 

After another few tense seconds Steve nodded to the other man, who put his guns away, looking at least a tiny bit apologetic at the werewolf. Steve reluctantly put the shield on his back, never taking his eyes off of Furball.

"He's going into custody." 

"No, he's not."

"Tony." Steve's Captain America voice was grating on Tony's nerves and he's had it now."

"No. He's going where I'm going and I'm going into the damn jet and get a blanket or something because it's fucking cold out here and I don't want to talk about this any longer." Tony stood up and Furball followed suit, pressing himself against Tony's leg. "Anyone have a problem with that?" 

Clint shrugged. "I have no problem with the pupper." 

Natasha, who had stood back until now, finally made herself known as she stepped out of the shadows and into the light of the arrow. "Jet's this way. We don't have a dog crate anyway." And to Tony she said, "You alright? JARVIS said you didn't have any blood since last night, we've got some in the jet for emergencies." 

"I'm fine. Furball caught me a chicken." Tony scratched the werewolf's head. "He took good care of me." 

"A chicken?!" The new guy suddenly spoke up. "You murdered a bird?" He sounded unusually upset.

Tony turned around and gave the birdman a once over. Besides the prominent mechanical wings on his back he had the stance and posture of a military man and on second glance Tony noticed a falcon wearing tiny goggles perched on his shoulder. 

"Yes, I was thirsty. Do you even know who I am? Who are you anyway and what are you doing here?" The guy had some nerve just showing up here and yelling at him on top of treating Furball like a criminal. "Do you have a problem with werewolves too?" 

"Tony.." Steve tried again, but Tony rounded on him, Furball growling cautiously. He was still tenser than Clint's bowstring and Tony wanted to get him out of the situation.

"No, Steve, I get it, but he has nothing to do with what happened 70 years ago." Tony pointed at the Captain. "You need to get over it," he said harshly.

Steve's face fell and hurt spread over it. Maybe Tony would regret his words later but right now he was nothing but annoyed with his friend's behaviour. He wasn't his usual composed self who while not necessarily overly friendly towards werewolves at least held back his dislike for them. He knew for Steve it hadn't been that long since the war ended, it had still be raging when he had "died". HYDRA-werewolves had played a huge part in it and Steve had never managed to get over that.

Suddenly birdman stepped in between them giving Steve the chance to evade Tony's glare.

"Sam Wilson, I do what he does, just slower. Steve somehow made me help clear up the HYDRA mess in DC." He held out his hand. "And then we got a call that the famous Iron Man needed some help. I didn't expect him to be practically naked though." Wilson smirked and Tony started to like the guy, giving him a firm hand shake.

"Sorry to disappoint and as much as would like to chat right now, can we get going?" He didn't wait for an answer and started walking in the direction of the jet. Furball stayed at his heel and Tony kept a hand on his flank. They walked out of the circle of light from Clint's arrow into the dark forest, in the distance the lights from the jet became visible. It was the first time Tony walked barefoot through the forest since Furball had brought him here and he was painfully aware of the branches and sticks beneath his feet. He let the werewolf guide him around the worst of it and he was not only glad about the warmth of the jet but also its smooth floor when they finally stepped inside. 

He let himself fall into one of the seats and Furball put his head into his lap. The other's trickled in after a short while, Steve walking by without looking at him, Natasha heading to the pilot seat. Wilson's wings folded neatly into some kind of backpack as Tony noticed and he stayed close to Steve while Clint took the seat besides Tony and had only had eyes for Furball. 

"Such a cute pupper." 

"He's not a dog, Clint." Natasha called from the pilot seat before she started the jet and they were finally on their way back home.


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As a warning, Steve is going to do something that is going to look really bad, but I really hate seeing people hate on him in the comments because they assume the worst. I love Steve, he has his reasons and it will be revealed in the next chapter. It's really discouraging seeing hate for characters you love .

"Hey Tony, psst, Tony...." Clint had been trying to get Tony's attention with not so subtle whispers for a while now but Tony had chosen to ignore him until now. He was too exhausted and just wanted to close his eyes for a moment before they landed. Natasha would take them to the Avengers Tower instead of the mansion, apperantly the HYDRA agents had done some damage to it and now it was swarming with SHIELD agents, the real kind. Not a place Tony wanted to be right now and it certainly wasn't a place Furball was safe. The werewolf had his head in Tony's lap and seemed to enjoy the soft scratches Tony provided. 

"Tony, please, Tony, what's his name?" 

Tony cracked an eye open. "Huh?" 

"The pupper, Tony, what's his name? He looks so soft." 

Steve scoffed behind them and Natasha sighed, Clint only had on thing on his mind at any given time it seemed. 

"Furball. His name is Furball." 

"Furball? Really?" There is was again, this time it was Wilson and Tony sighed. 

"He can't remember his name and that's what I called him first, he wanted to keep it." Tony shrugged, he was too tired to get into any more detail. Natasha could fill the others in later, not like Steve or the bird guy really cared about what happened to Furball, they had made it pretty clear earlier, especially Steve. 

"I think it's perfect." Clint commented. "He's made of fluff... I want to touch it. Can I, Tony? Please, I want to pet." He couldn't sit still in his seat and was bouncing around. 

"He's not a dog, Clint, and I'm not his owner." People needed to get off his case, Tony just wanted to get some shut eye. "Talk to Furball if you want anything from him, I need some rest." Even his sass was gone, he was that exhausted, the last hours had caught up with Tony now that he had been able to sit down and relax. The adrenaline had worn off and maybe he should have taken Natasha up on her offer for some emergency blood, a chicken really didn't have much blood in it after all.

"Psst, Furball." Clint was back to whispering again. "Can I pet you, you look so fluffy." 

Furball looked up at that, eyeing Clint with mild interest, but then put his head back down into Tony's lap. Clint cursed under his breath then started patting his pockets and looking into the bags on his belt, after a moment he triumphantly pulled something out. It was long, thin and brown and -

"Seriously, a dog treat?" Tony was certain Furball wouldn't fall for that one but sure enough the werewolf perked up and had only eyes for the treat in Clint's hand.

"You want that, don't you? Come here, let me pet you and you'll get it. You're a good boy, yes, you are, yes, you are." Clint waved the chew stick around and Furball trotted over, slowly and cautiously until he was standing in front of Clint, he was almost at eye level with him the way Clint leaned forward. He licked his lips and when Clint held up the treat he kept his eyes on it.

"You can have it if I can pet you? Deal?" Clint held out his empty hand to the werewolf and Furball took the offer and sniffed it.

Tony watched out of the corner of his eye, he was curious to see what would happen. He was about 98% sure Clint wouldn't lose a limb in the following moments. He knew how important scent was to Furball and Clint looked like he knew what he was doing, which wasn't the case very often. He didn't look concerned, quite the opposite, he smiled at Furball and kept talking to him, telling him what a good boy he was. Furball eventually sat down and finished smelling Clint's hand, he was now focused on the treat in his other hand again. Clint took the opportunity to try and pet him, but Furball pulled back, letting out a low warning growl. 

"Alright, alright." Clint held out the chew stick, looking defeated and Furball took it gingerly, gulping it down in a few bites. He looked content, licking his lips and then nudging Clint's hand with his snout. "I don't have more, sorry." Furball huffed annoyed but when Clint went to pet him he didn't pull away, quite the opposite, he leaned into the touch when the archer scratched behind his ears. 

"Yeah, Lucky likes that too."

"Lucky?" Wilson asked.

"My dog. The ear scratches always get him too." Clint grinned like a little boy receiving his birthday presents early. His hands were all over Furball now, scratching here, ruffling there and Furball seemed to enjoy it if the furious tail wagging was anything to go by. Tony was getting a little jealous so far he had been the only one allowed to touch the werewolf but he was also happy to see him get along with someone else as well.

"You know, if you let him sniff you too he might not be so nervous anymore." Clint suddenly said, turning to the two men in the back. "He really is just a giant puppy, Steve. This might be a chance for you too, you know?"

"No." Steve had his arms crossed and was stubbornly staring out of the window. Wilson next to him looked almost the same, except he was staring at Furball with his brows furrowed. 

"Sam?" Clint asked hopefully

Wilson sighed and uncrossed his arms. "Alright, but only if he doesn't try to eat Redwing." The tiny falcon on his shoulder squawked at that.

Clint ruffled Furball's chest. "He wouldn't. Right, Furball, you wouldn't?" The way the werewolf licked his lips when he looked at the bird definitely said he would eat him if he had the chance but then gave an affirmative huff. Sam, not entirely convinced, held out his hand anyway and Furball slowly trotted over to him, his metal leg making a clunking sound with every step. Tony felt himself tense up despite his exhaustion. Clint petting Furball was one thing, he had still been in arm's reach then, now he was across the room and Tony didn't know if he was more afraid for Furball's safety or for Wilson's or Steve's. He watched with apprehension as Furball approached the two, Tony could tell Furball wasn't exactly relaxed, he had his head lowered and was walking slowly, calculated, but he was also curious, his ears twitching slightly.

Tony's fear was unfounded because as soon as Furball got close to Sam's hand he started sneezing violently and flopped to the ground, covering his snout with his right paw, not unlike he had done in the pet supply shop. 

Sam looked completely dumbfounded and Tony had to laugh at the face he made. Furball sneezed a couple more times before he shook himself and tried to sniff Sam a second time.

"Is that normal? That's not normal. Is he sick?" 

"No." Tony chuckled. "It happened before, don't worry. Guess you just got something on you that makes him sneeze. Maybe it's your aftershave." 

"Great." Wilson didn't sound upset however, he let Furball sniff his hand again and this time the werewolf didn't have a sneeze attack. "I like him a lot better when he's not growling at us." 

Furball's tail gave a few tentative wags when Wilson scratched behind his ears and now even Steve took a glance at the werewolf. 

"Come on, Cap, you're the only one left now." Clint remarked, a huge grin on his face.

"What about Natasha?" 

"I had the pleasure yesterday." Natasha called from the front and Tony was glad she didn't add how Furball had almost mauled her to death during that encounter or mentioned what they had found out about Furball's identity. Either she had her own agenda and just waited for the right moment to reveal that particular information or she trusted Tony's judgment of Furball's character and Natasha trusted Tony about as far as she could throw him. 

"You gotta admit, Steve, he is kinda cute." Wilson said. "Just look at him." He squished Furball's face and made his fur poof up, with the very tip of Fuball's tongue peeking out of his mouth the werewolf created an adorable picture that was hard to resist. Tony was grinning from ear to ear, but Steve looked less than happy. A few tense second passed with the only sound in the in the quinjet being the low hum of the engines and the rhythmic thumping of Furball's tail against the floor. 

"Alright." Steve finally said and unfolded his arms. Still incredibly tense he held out his hand.

Furball took it as an invitation and removed his face from Wilson's hands and ever so slowly took the few steps towards Steve, his back was ramrod straight and Tony couldn't tell who was more tense, Steve or Furball. No doubt the werewolf still felt Steve's hostility.

What happened next nobody had been prepared for. The instant Furball touched his nose to Steve's hand his tail went haywire and he couldn't be held back, in a span of a few seconds he trailed his snout up Steve's arm and before anybody could react the werewolf had lept up and buried Steve under him. 

Tony jumped up, all fatigue forgotten. "Furball!" Wilson was yelling, Clint was yelling, Steve was yelling somewhere under Furball's growls and slurps, Tony feared the worst, had he really misjudged the werewolf this badly? 

A second later Furball was thrown across the ship and crashed into a supply cabinet. He crumbled to the ground with a heartbreaking yelp.


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW: panic attack(s), description of blood and gore

Steve was covered in drool. 

It would have been funny if the man didn't look like he was about to have a panic attack. Scratch that. Steve was having a panic attack. He crumbled in his seat, breaking down in front of the entire team. 

Tony's first instict had been to comfort Furball, but seeing Steve like this made him freeze on the spot. Wilson was the first to react and he immedieately got up and crouched down in front of the Captain. Clint next to him was on the edge of his seat but seemed to have the same problem as Tony of not knowing what to do. 

A few seconds passed and Tony finally moved, in a moment he was at Furball's side, carefully petting the werewolf's head. It didn't look like he was injured and the yelp had more been from surprise of being thrown across the room instead of actual pain. Though Tony was sure he was going to have a bruise or two later. 

Furball was whimpering pitifully and had curled in on himself, it took Tony some convincing and soft tugs to get his head into his lap and finally be able to comfort him. Tony craddled Furball's head trying to calm him down, it only took a few strokes and a calm words from the genius to get the werewolf to stop whimpering. Instead he buried his nose in Tony's stomach. 

Steve however didn't calm down as easy. When Tony looked up he found the Captain hyperventilating in front of Wilson. 

"Breath, Steve. Come on, man. Breath with me. In... Out." 

Several tense minutes passed before Steve was breathing somewhat normal again, he was incredibly pale when he leaned back and Tony was able to see his face. His hair was sticking up in all direction if from drool or sweat Tony couldn't tell. "I can't... I can't, Tony." Steve's voice trembled and he rubbed his face before he managed to glance at Tony, very pointedly not looking at the werewolf. "Every time I look at him.. " He shook his head, unable to finish the sentence he buried his head in his hands again. 

"Steve?" Wilson still had a comforting hand on the Captain's knee, he looked as confused as Tony felt. "There's nothing wrong with freaking out when a huge fucking werewolf - " Wilson threw a pointed look at Tony, like he was somehow responsible for Furball's behaviour. " - jumps on you." 

"Why the hell did he do that anyway?" 

"I don't know, he probably liked Steve's smell! Not like he chewed his face off or anything."

"His smell?" 

"Yeah, he told me he could tell if a person is good just by smelling them and since Mr. Captain Rogers here is supposed to be the epitome of American Goodness I guess that triggered it. Who knows!" Tony buried his hands in Furball's furs, rubbing his ears, trying to stay calm and failing. Furball's reaction to Steve had upset him greatly, hadn't he said Tony was good, that he smelled good? And yet Furball had never reacted to him like he had to Steve. Tony had thought it had meant that he had a special connection to the werewolf, despite being a vampire. That /he/ was something special. Guess he had been wrong.

Only when Furball let out a soft whine did he realise that he was pulling on his ears and hurting him. "Sorry." He quickly petted down the fur and scratched his ears lightly. "I know you didn't want to hurt him, buddy." 

"Didn't want to hurt him? Steve just had a panic attack because of him!" Wilson's anger flared up and he got loud but then Steve placed his hand on Wilson's shoulder and he defleated immediately. 

"Sam." Steve's voice was hoarse and there were tear streaks on his face.

"What? It's true... Steve?" Wilson's anger turned to concern when he saw Steve's face. Tony had to avert his eyes and instead looked at Furball, who was eerily quiet. Steve was his team mate and most of all his friend, seeing him hurt like this was horrible. With his own feelings all over the place Tony had a hard time forming a clear thought, it was just too much. The last hours in the woods, Hydra's attack, and now this, his head was spinning and passing out felt like a good idea right now. If it hadn't been for the comforting weight of Furball's head in his lap Tony would have done just that and then Steve's voice pulled him back to reality completely.

"I guess I owe you an explanation."

"Steve, you don't need to - " 

"Sam, please." Steve took a deep breath. "Every time I look at him - Furball - " He said the name like it hurt him. "knowing he is - was HYDRA. All I can see is how they tear into him. Tear him apart right in front of me. Blood ... blood was everywhere. It had been snowing and everything was turning red. I - "  
Steve gasped and surpressed a sob. "I couldn't safe him.... I was too late. They found his position, five werewolves, all HYDRA, he never stood a chance. And it's my fault, I was his captain, his friend - "Another sob." I should have told him to not go so far away, keep a better eye on him." Steve was barely holding it together at this point. He was shaking horribly and was on the edge of breaking down again. 

"Who are you talking about, Steve?" 

"Bucky. They killed Bucky! They ripped him apart and dragged away what was left of him. One of them had his arm -" Steve choked on the word. "It was chewing on his severed arm..." 

The silence that followed was crushing. Everybody knew Bucky Barnes, Steve Rogers' child hood friend, everybody knew he died in the war, the only one of the Howling commandos that did, but not like this. Not like this.

"They don't write that in the history books..." Clint eventually said but his usual quip was gone. Steve had his face in his hands again, his shoulders shaking, nobody said anything else. 

Furball had been very still while Steve had talked but now he stirred and pulled his head away from Tony's hands. Tony tried to hold onto him but the werewolf got up, not looking at Tony or anybody else, and trotted away, head low and tail between his legs. He squeezed himself in the space between the empty pilot seat next to Natasha and the wall and curled himself up until he was nothing more than a ball of black fluff.

"Fuck." Tony hit the back of his head against the supply cabinet and to add to his plight a box that had come loose when Furball had hit the cabinet fell down and hit him on the shoulder. Tony couldn't bring himself to care anymore. His body was hurting everywhere and his head wasn't off much better.

"Two minutes until we land." Natasha announced and some of the tension in the jet lifted, the prospect of getting out of the tiny space and into their own quarters relaxed everybody somewhat. 

Steve all but stumbled out of the jet once Nat had set it down on the roof of the Avengers Tower. Wilson had his arm around the Captain's shoulders and they disappeared into the tower before Tony could even get up. Only with Clint's help was he able to hoist himself up, his whole body aching. 

Outside the sky was turning orange, he had spent the entire night in the forest and almost an entire day without any blood except that chicken Furball had brought him. Tony was longing for a large drink and a warm bed to sleep the day away. Natasha exited the jet after him and only then did he notice that that Furball hadn't followed him.

"Furball, come on, you can't stay in there." Tony said softly, hoping the werwolf would come with him. Tony couldn't explain why Furball was acting so distant now, Steve's story had upset him obviously - it had upset everybody - but Furball had always sought comfort in Tony's presence - until now. 

The werewolf came out of the jet still hanging his head and trotted next to Tony back to the tower, keeping his distance from everybody. Steve and Wilson were already gone when they stepped into the common room, Natasha made a beeline to the fridge and pulled two bottle of blood. 

"Blood, shower and then bed?" She handed Tony the bottle, already unscrewed, and opened one for herself. 

"Something like that, not necessarily in that order." He took a few large gulps and felt his energy returning, even though he was still physically exhausted, he at least felt like he could stand on his own again.

"You have to clean those wounds."

"Probably better..." 

"Or he could just lick them." Nat gestured to Furball, who was standing in the middle of the room looking like a kicked puppy. 

"Not sure if he wants anything to do with me anymore..." Tony shrugged, then finished the bottle and threw it in the designated trash. "Shower sounds actually pretty good. I'm freezing." 

"I have to go back to DC to clean up the mess there but after that we'll figure out what's up with Furball." She somehow managed not to make the name sound awkward. "He's probably just in shock. We all are." 

Tony nodded, his gaze lingering on the werewolf before meeting with Natasha's again. Steve was a completely different issue. Tony figured Sam was with him now and he seemed like a decent guy. "Did you know?" 

"What? That Steve watched his best friend be torn apart by werewolves? No." She shook her head, swirling the red liquid in her bottle around. "That was probably the first time he ever told that story."

"I thought it was just because HYDRA used werewolves during the war.. I never thought it was this - "

"Personal?"

"- traumatic." 

Natasha finished her bottle and threw it away. "Guess even the best of us have dark secrets." With that she left the tower the way she came and only a short time later Tony could hear the jet take off again. 

"Come on, Furball, I know you're not a happy puppy right now, but I bet you could use a comfy bed to sleep in too." 

Tony slowly walked towards the elevator, hoping the werewolf would follow him. His worries were unneeded as only a few seconds later he felt a furry body press against his leg and he let his hand rest lightly on the werewolf's head.


	26. Chapter 26

When Tony was finally lying in bed he was beyond exhausted yet he couldn't find any sleep. He rolled over, throwing the covers back and reached for his tablet on the night table. 

He had guided Furball to his floor earlier and had wanted to take a shower, but the werewolf had pushed past him into the en suite bathroom and had blocked the door with his body for lack of thumbs to lock the door. Tony had used one of the many other bathrooms on the floor thinking Furball had simply wanted some privacy to shift back to his human form, but even after Tony had showered and taken care of his many scratches and bruises the werewolf was still locked up in the bathroom.

Now after turning and tossing on the bed for a good thirty minutes Furball still hadn't come out, in fact, Tony hadn't even heard any movement inside the bathroom. It had him worried but everybody had their own way of dealing with the events that had transpired and while Furball might rather be alone right now - thought Tony didn't know why he wouldn't want to be alone in one of the rather spacious bed rooms on this or any other floor and had chosen the bathroom instead - Tony had his own way of dealing with things. 

He had to fix it. 

"Sir, might I advice you against doing any work right now and rest instead?" JARVIS's attempt of stopping Tony from powering up the tablet came from the ceiling, but Tony waved him off. 

"Noted, J, but I have to take care of things. I need to know what damage HYDRA did to the mansion is, order repairs for that." He punched away at his tablet accessing the surveillance footage of his mansion. "And I need the suits here too."

"I have already assessed the damage caused to the building and the terrain and have contacted our usual contractors. Repairs are already underway."

Tony dropped the tablet into his lap, the AI was way ahead of him.

"And the suits?"

"Already in the lab."

Tony sighed and rubbed his eyes. "What about Furball's stuff, it's still in the mansion. His clothes and the brushes and toys..." 

"His things are being picked up as we speak, everything will be ready after Sir has rested. I have also arranged for the bots to be transported to the tower as I am anticipating a longer stay." 

Exhausted and with no more reason to stay up, Tony dropped back into the pillows, closing his eyes. "J?"

"Yes, Sir?"

"Thank you."

"My pleasure, Sir, I am glad you are well."

Tony was asleep before JARVIS had finished his sentence, the circles his mind had been spinning came to an end trusting that the AI was going to take care of everything that needed to be done. His brain had its own way to handle the events of the day and he dreamt of bloodied snow in the blazing sun, he waded through waves of black fur until he eventually woke up after being chased by a giant chicken while riding on Furball.

He went to rub his face but his movements were still sluggish and he accidentally slapped himself in the face, waking himself up instantly. He blinked his eyes open to a dim room, daylight filtering through the darkened windows. 

"What time?" Tony groaned, his whole body was soar and he didn't feel that much better than before going to bed.

"Just past 2pm, Sir. You have slept for 8 hours." 

"That doesn't sound right, way too normal..." With some effort Tony got up and shuffled to the bathroom, only when he almost walked into a closed door that was usually open, did he remember that Furball had been hiding in there. "Uhm.. Furball?" He tentatively knocked on the door and when he got no answer he slowly opened it. 

"Furball...I'm going to turn on the light, alright?" Furball didn't answer and so Tony turned on the light to a dim setting. At first Tony couldn't see anything in the bathroom, it seemed empty until his gaze fell on the shower cabin and the huge black blob in it. Somehow Furball had managed to squeeze himself into the cabin and almost closed the glass door completely from the inside. 

"Buddy... did you stay here the whole time?" Tony nudged the door open and was faced with a bundle of fur with no discernable beginning or end. Furball had hid his head under his tail and had curled up the metal leg under his body, it took some trial and error before Tony was able to push the werewolf's tail to the side and find his head. Pale grey eyes were peering back at him when he did. 

"There you are." Tony smiled down at Furball, trying not to think about how uncomfortable it must have been to spend hours lying like that. "What are you doing in here, you could have stayed in a bed." In my bed, Tony didn't say, but he had missed the furry body next to him. He softly stroked Furball's head, scratching behind his ears. "Come on, Furball, let's get out of here. I think we should talk, don't you think?" 

That had been the wrong thing to say because Furball turned his head away and closed his eyes, whining softly. 

"Just you and me, okay? No Steve, no Natasha. You don't have to even see them. I just want to talk to you." Tony tried softly, emphasising his good intention with gentle pets and scratches but Furball wouldn't look at him. 

"I'm not mad at you." 

That made Furball open his eyes and peer at Tony, giving a questioning whine. 

"Yeah," Tony ruffled his fur. "Not mad at all. I just want to talk, but I need you to shift. Can you do that for me? Your clothes are all here, you don't have to go naked." 

Furball grumbled softly, licking his lips, but didn't make any move to shift or even get up. 

Tony sighed and got up, he had one more trick up his sleeve. Back in the bedroom he grabbed his still warm blanket from his bed hoping it still smelled like him. Furball hadn't moved when Tony returned but he did lift his head when he was suddenly covered in a soft blanket. He grumbled in surprise and looked up at Tony. 

"Come on, buddy." Tony got his sore body to kneel down next to the shower to pet the werewolf again. "I'm not going to tell you to shift, but I would really appreciate it if you did." He gently ran his fingers up in between Furball's eyes, smoothing out the soft fur there, he waited a little longer for the werewolf to initiate a shift but when nothing happened he sighed and moved to get up. 

"I'll wait outside then." Communicating with the werewolf was still as hard as in had been in the beginning. Tony might be a genius but he was no mind reader, he was about to give Furball's ear the last scratches and then leave the werewolf alone for now when he felt him move under his hand. 

It wasn't Furball moving however, rather it was Furball's bones moving under his skin. Additionally a grating noise coming from somewhere under the werewolf told Tony that the metal arm was doing something to his expensive tiles that he'd rather not know about. 

Tony watched fascinated as the body under the blanket shrank considerably and the fur under his hand turned into long strands of hair. 

Human Furball looked as exhausted as Tony had felt yesterday, he had deep dark circles under his eyes and was shivering slightly. With his right hand he was pulling the blanket closer around himself and struggled to get into a sitting position. Tony helped adjust the blanket and gave the werewolf a minute to settle into his new form. Furball was working his jaw and Tony pushed his hair back, the werewolf had kept the wolf ears so the hair didn't stay as far back but it freed up his face. Tony tilted his head into Furball's field of view and flashed him a smile. 

"Hey there, handsome." 

Furball averted his eyes at first but then found the courage to meet Tony's. 

"You're not mad?" He asked coyly, his voice still hoarse after the shift.

"Of course not, hey, I'm a bit confused about some things that happened, but I am not mad. We can talk about everything." Tony pressed a chaste kiss to Furball's forehead and rubbed his back. "Let's get you of this shower." 

With combined effort they both got up and settled on the bed in Tony's room. Furball was sitting wrapped in the blanket on the head end of the bed while Tony climbed on the foot end then sat cross-legged across from the werewolf.

"You know, I don't know where to start, so much happened yesterday - or well - earlier today really. Maybe we start at the beginning with HYDRA before we get into the whole Steve issue - "

"I know him." Furball interrupted Tony, not looking at him.

"Huh?" The words registered in Tony's brain but he couldn't believe them right away.

"The man - Steve, I know him." 

"From where?" 

Furball shook his head, ducking his face further into the blanket. 

"I don't know, I just know his smell... He smelled so... familiar. I'm sorry, I overreacted but I couldn't help myself." A tiny sob escaped him. "I was so happy when I smelled him..." Furball took a few breaths to calm himself before looking up at Tony. "He's a good man?" 

Tony nodded and swallowed the lump in his throat. Was Furball just as happy when he had smelled Tony?

"Very good actually, a symbol of goodness for a lot of people."

Furball nodded but he didn't look happy, quite the opposite, he was chewing on the inside of his lip. Tony waited patiently, something was bothering the other and he wasn't going to push. That Furball knew Steve was a shock. Of course there was the possibility that maybe he just knew someone who smelled similar to the Captain, but Tony doubted that. Furball had shown over and over again that his sense of smell was extraordinary and his reaction on the plane was further proof. So the question that begged to be answered was: How did he know him?

"What if it was me?" Furball's soft words pulled Tony back and he furrowed his brows at the question.

"What do you mean?"

Furball took a deep breath and finally looked at Tony, eyes full of horror and tears threatening to spill.

"What if I was the one who killed his friend?"


	27. Chapter 27

"There was a lot of blood, in the snow... I remember it was cold, so cold. I know there were wolves there... other werewolves, I guess?" Furball looked up from his tale, his face completely white. Tony was holding the werewolf's right hand with both of his. 

"Was Steve there?" He asked carefully. Furball's memories were choppy and he could only recall them in flashes but this was the first time he was able to tell anything about his past. Tony didn't know if he should be happy or cry because Furball's recollection matched Steve's and that scared him to no end. 

"I'm sorry." Furball pulled his hand out from under Tony's but Tony snatched it back, no matter what really happened that day, they were going to get through this.

"Sir." JARVIS suddenly interrupted and Tony really couldn't use a distraction right now, they were on the edge of something big.

"Not now, J, mute please." 

"Sir, I must insist. There is some important information on your tablet."

There has never been a time where JARVIS had ignored a direct mute order, other orders especially to save Tony's life, yes, but a mute order he had always respected when Tony had needed his quiet time. 

"Jarvis, /I/ must insist or else I am going to re-write your subroutines." 

"Sir," Jarvis continued despite the warning. "I have extended the search algorithm and have found a match for Mr. Furball. The result is on the tablet." 

"What?" Both Tony and Furball said simultaneously and then Tony was already lunging for the tablet on the bedside table. "Why didn't you say that earlier? Who is he? For fucks sake, JARVIS, spit it out." 

"The result is on the tablet, Sir." 

Why JARVIS didn't want to say Furball's name was beyond Tony, this was literally the revelation of the century and the AI was playing hard to get. Tony tapped the tablet awake and there was another button courtesy of JARVIS, what was going on? JARVIS' reluctance made Tony slow down and he hesitated to click the button.

Furball next to him had ducked his head into the blanket and only his ears were poking out. He was a tight bundle of angst and shivered visibly. Tony placed his hand on the back of the werewolf's head, stroking his hair lightly, prompting him to look up with wide eyes. "Nothing's going to happen, okay? This is a good thing."

JARVIS chimed in again. "Based on the new information provided by Mr. Furball I have included Captain Rogers acquaintances in the search algorithm." 

A choked sob escaped Furball. "I knew him." But Tony barely heard him, he had opened the file on the tablet and, oh god, that was Furball looking back at him alright, but at the same time it wasn't. 

The man was smiling at something behind the camera, his eyes were full of life and happiness. He was clean shaven, his hair groomed and a military cap was sitting artfully askew on top of his head. It was a young man in the prime of his life, an aura of confidence was radiating of him. In stark contrast was the picture next to the old black and white photo; the picture Tony took of Furball a couple of days ago. It was of a timid broken man with eyes full of confusion. Worlds lay between the two pictures and only side by side it suddenly became clear that these were one and the same man.

Tony immediately recognized the black and white picture, he had seen it before, everybody in America had seen it at least once in a history class.

"You're Bucky Barnes." Tony said incredulously. He got up on his knees and turned the tablet around, holding it out for Furball to see.

"You're Bucky Barnes, Furball, The Bucky Barnes! Holy shit!" 

"No no no no no...", Furball didn't so much as glance at the tablet and tugged the blanket tighter around himself.

"We have to tell, Steve, he is going to freak out." Tony jumped up and walked off the bed, almost face-planting the floor when one of his legs gave out. He didn't think about the hows and whys of the situation. Why Bucky Barnes was still alive and looking not a day older than on the day he presumably died. How had he become a werewolf in that time? What happened to his memories? What happened to his arm? Those were questions that could be answered later, all Tony thought about was getting Furball - Bucky - that would take some getting used to - to Steve. He wanted to reunite the friends and fix this mess. Bucky clearly remembered Steve in some way and Steve was still mourning his best friend, right this very moment if Tony had to guess, with the renewed memories of Bucky's "death" from the quinjet. 

Tony was the one who could fix all of that. 

"J, did Furball - fuck - Bucky's clothes arrive yet?"

"The boxes are in front of the door, with the bots, Sir. May I advice you to not rush into things?"

"Hush, JARVIS." 

When Tony opened the door he was greeted with loud beeps and whirring sounds from the bots. They had made a mess out of the boxes, U had somehow managed to get one fluffy sock over his camera lens and was driving into the wall over and over again. Butterfingers had built a nest out of t-shirts and Dum-E happily waved a sweater at Tony, it probably had some motor oil on it now. 

"Kids, you better clean that up, or I'll put you into storage and not the nice kind of storage, the stinky, wet and moldy kind of storage that gets auctioned off for a couple of bucks. I want everything neatly folded when I get back. Give me that, Dum-E!" Tony grabbed the sweater and fished some sweatpants out of a pile, underwear was nowhere to be seen so he skipped that. Bucky would be fine, he just needed something to cover up for now.

He slowed down when he returned to a shaking blanket lump on the bed. He put the clothes down beside the pile and tried to guess where the werewolf's head would be, carefully placing his hand on top.

"Bucky?" 

"Don't," came a muffled reply. "I'm not..."

"But you are. We found out who you are, isn't that what you wanted? I mean, sure we could do a DNA test somehow, if we find something to compare it to, but everything matches up. Even if the facial recognition wasn't a 100%, you remembered Steve!" 

"I don't!" Suddenly Bucky jerked away, his head appearing from the blankets, looking angry and scared at the same time. "I don't remember him! What I remember is a lot of ice and snow and a fucking lot of pain. It could have happened two weeks ago for all I know." 

Tony was taken aback at the outburst, he had never seen Furball this angry. 

"And what about this?" Furball struggled out of the blanket and presented his metal arm. "How did this happen, huh?" He waved the arm in front of Tony's face. "I'm not -, " he stopped at the name, suddenly defeated he dropped the arm and gestured to the tablet, "I'm not him." 

Tony was at a loss of words, he had no explanation, not at this point in time, he didn't know anything. He opened his mouth a couple of times and closed it again, words that usually came to him easily failed him. 

Finally Tony really looked at Furball-who-was-Bucky sitting in front of him, a broken man who had been afraid to sit on the couch for fear of punishment not even two days ago, with no memories of his life, with no sense of self even. Furball was crumbled in on himself, holding his head in his flesh hand, shivering and occasionally shaking. Tony wasn't sure if he was crying because he made no sound whatsoever. On top of that the man was still naked, the blanket bunched around his lower half. This wasn't the man from the black and white picture, not by a long shot. Knowing his identity wasn't going to fix whatever happened to him.

Tony had wanted to throw Furball into a confrontation with Steve Rogers, his once best friend he couldn't even remember, without any preparation whatsoever. Disaster was probably a too nice of a word of what would have happened then. 

"I'm not going to force you to meet him, but I think he deserves to know you are alive. That Bucky is alive." 

Furball flinched at the name, but his shoulders lowered the tiniest bit and he rubbed his eyes before giving a forced nod, not convinced but willing to listen. Tony handed him his clothes and once the man was dressed and sitting on the edge of the bed he wrapped his arms around him and pulled him close. Furball melted into his touch, his head resting against Tony's chest, his arms hanging loosely at his side. It was as if someone had suddenly taken all the tension out of his body and Tony was the only thing holding him upright. 

Tony rubbed circles across Furball's back, and it had to be Furball for now, referring to him as Bucky so soon had been wrong, Tony realized. While the moment turned into minutes and Tony's hands caressed Furball's head and back and rubbing his furry ears, his mind was going a hundred miles per minute. He was working through every possible situation of Furball and Steve meeting and the one unknown variable he kept encountering was how Steve would react to knowing Bucky was alive. Just telling him via JARVIS wasn't going to cut it, it felt wrong and Steve deserved better. Besides, he might not believe it until he saw Bucky himself. What Tony wanted to avoid was a 220 pound super soldier pommeling down the door to get to his best friend and traumatizing either one even more.

"He hates me...", Furball mumbled into Tony's t-shirt and brought Tony out of his contemplation. 

"Steve? No. No, he doesn't, I can assure you."

"He hates werewolves." 

That was true, Tony had to admit. "It's...complicated." That was putting it mildly. Explaining that to Steve was going to be a whole different story. 'Oh hey, your best bud from the forties is alive and by the way he's a werewolf now. The thing you hate the most because they killed your best bud.' Except Steve already knew Furball as werewolf. 

"He doesn't hate you, trust me."

"I trust you."

Tony's heart skipped a beat at Furball's words, they had come so spontaneously, so unexpected, he leaned down and pressed a kiss to the top of Furball's head right between his fluffy ears. 

"Are you going to be there? When I meet him again?"

"Of course!" Tony hadn't even thought about leaving Furball alone and he squeezed him just a little tighter to show his support. "And you can leave at any point if it's too much or if Steve does something you don't want to." 

"Like...fighting?" Furball looked up worriedly.

Tony shook his head. "I imagine Steve is going to be very emotional, he might want to touch you, give you a hug maybe and boy, can I tell you those can be borderline violent all on their own, but he's not going to hurt you. I'll make sure of that."

Furball rested his head against Tony's chest again and fell silent. Tony couldn't see his expression but he felt the other's face move as if he was contemplating something.

"I'm ready." He said, to Tony's surprise. They pulled apart and Furball looked up, meeting Tony's eyes before Tony could even question him. 

"I... want to meet him." He said determined and with a some more timidness he added. "...again. Without drooling."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this isn't the long awaited meeting between Steve and Bucky, but I thought it was important to focus a bit on Furball/Bucky first
> 
> For those who want some more dog related Winteriron I posted the first part of Borks and Scritches (which has been on the imaginetonyandbucky tumblr for ages) on AO3, for those who haven't seen it.


	28. Chapter 28

Steve was in the common room with Sam. Both were dressed in casual clothes now and Steve was holding a cup of some sort of warm beverage between his hands, it looked like he was trying hard not to break it. Sam was speaking to him in a low voice, his own cup abandoned on the coffee table.

At first Tony was unsure about Sam's presence, but Tony had gotten to know Sam as a quite reasonable man, insightful and sympathetic, and Steve trusted him. It was good that there was another person who could de-escalate the situation and who Steve hopefully listened to because Tony wasn't so sure he would listen to him. 

They had agreed that Tony would do most of the talking and Furball would take it as well as he could, Tony had stressed that he was allowed to leave whenever he wanted and he would deal with Steve.

Tony was carefully peaking into the common room, Furball stood a few feet behind him, head hanging low. He was still apprehensive despite his desire to meet Steve again, understandably. Their last meeting had been anything but amicable after all, with both of them not knowing who the other was. 

"Steve," Tony tried carefully, stepping into the room. "There's someone I think you should meet."

Steve's grip on the mug tightened and he stared into the dark liquid inside, unmoving. "Tony...," he swallowed hard and shook his head, "I can't. Not now."

"He shifted back if that's the problem. No sharp teeth and claws and 100% human," Tony glanced at Furball and corrected himself. "95%, but the ears blend right in and are quite adorable, to be honest. Also, no slobbering and drooling promised. He's sorry about that." He gestured for Furball to step into the room and the werewolf hesitantly came to his side. He was tense, Tony could feel it. He was peering at Steve through his hair with an expression that Tony couldn't immediately place. Longing. This was maybe the first glance of Bucky coming through. Tony could tell him a hundred times who he was and run facial recognition and there would still be doubt. 

Bucky wanted to know it from Steve.

The mug got a nuance closer to breaking in Steve's grip and Sam put a calming hand on his arm. He was eyeing Bucky/Furball with suspicion but there was no hostility. "Stark, I don't think this - "

"Ah ah ah," Tony interrupted. "It's Tony, please, we're all friends here. Sam, right? Nice wings by the way, if Capsicle could stop being so stubborn I'd like to take a look at them. They took quite a beating if my blood-starven eyes didn't deceive me yesterday. Anyway, Steve, take a look at him." Tony was getting annoyed, a little bit, Steve was as unrelenting as a brick wall, staring into his drink and that better not be coffee. Tony wasn't so much worried about the cup breaking but the rug was too nice to have stains on it. "Steve. For fuck's sake, look at him."

It was Bucky who spoke next.

"Steve?" 

And that word was all it took. Steve sat upright with a start, the remains of the coffee mug trickling down his fingers. His eyes wide like a deer's caught in the headlights, a haunted expression flickered over his face and then, he finally looked up.

"Bucky?"

Bucky next to Tony shrunk into himself even more but he held Steve's gaze for a moment.

"Bucky!" Steve was up on his feet and in front of Bucky in a second. Bucky/Furball tensed immediately and Tony already felt the need to step between them. Steve was so close - too close in Tony's opinion - but Bucky made no move to step back or run. He held painfully still while Steve's gaze wandered over him. 

Tony watched as Steve's eyes traveled over Bucky, his eyes widened when he saw the folded back ears on Bucky's head but he didn't comment on it, when his gaze fell on Bucky's metal hand, however, half hidden under the long sleeve, Steve's mouth dropped open and he reached out to grab it, stopping just short, his fingertips grazing the fabric of Bucky's sweater. Surprisingly Bucky offered his hand, turning it palm side up and Steve gingerly touched the metal fingers.

"I.. I saw you die." Steve's voice was trembling, he shook his head, realizing how wrong that statement was. "I thought you died. I saw them rip you apart... your arm." He took Bucky's hand between both of his as if to confirm that it was really there. "Oh my god, Bucky, you survived...how...?" Tears formed in the corner of his eyes and he looked up to search Bucky's face for an answer only to find confusion and uncertainty.

"He doesn't remember, Steve," Tony answered instead and he immediately had the Captain's attention. 

"Did you know?" Steve demanded to know and Tony didn't miss the accusation that came along with it. Did you keep him from me?

"We only just figured it out, Steve." Tony stuffed his hands into his pockets to keep them from forming into fists. "And the first thing I did was convince him to meet you properly."

Bucky looked away at that, guilt was visible on his face through the curtain of hair. 

"He recognized you on the plane, that was the clue we needed. JARVIS has been running facial recognition since Furball - I mean Bucky showed up at the mansion, but we never thought to search as far back as World War II."

Steve turned to Bucky again. "You... you recognized me?" His eyes flew wide open. "And I pushed you away!" Without warning he pulled Bucky into a hug, wrapping his arms around the other man and pressing him against his chest. "I am so sorry, Bucky. I hurt you when you needed me." He continued to apologize and he touched Furball all over, stroking his back, petting him, even kissing the top of his head and Tony was unable to do anything about it. He had promised Furball that Steve wasn't going to do anything to him and now - 

Except Furball wasn't doing anything, he wasn't struggling, he wasn't protesting, he was ...crying? Tony's heart broke when he noticed the tears streaming down Furball's face and dripping onto Steve's shirt. His ears had perked up and were no longer pressed flat against his head and Bucky had his hands tangled in the other man's shirt, holding onto Steve just as much as Steve was holding onto him. 

Furball was happy. 

Bucky was happy, Tony realized and it had nothing to do with him. He felt like an intruder in his own home watching the two long lost friends finally reunite after decades. He took a step back, he wasn't needed here anymore. Bucky was going to be fine with Steve. His work here was done. 

Tony had known from the start that he was just a temporary home for Furball until he regained his memories and he knew who he was again. A short step on the way to Bucky's recovery, a mediator of sorts to bring the werewolf to the werewolf-phobic. This was right. This was how it was supposed to be from the beginning. Bucky belonged to Steve.

Tony swallowed hard when he turned away, not able to bear it any longer. Sure, the two friends would stay here for a few days until the mess in DC was cleaned up. They would still see each other for some time, he should count himself lucky that Furball turned out to be Steve's friend, that way they would see each other again all the time. 

Then why did it already feel like he lost him forever?

He left the two in the living room. Sam was still there if they needed some help, but from what Tony could tell everything was going to work out between the two. Tony had to check if the bots had cleaned up the mess from earlier, Bucky needed the rest of his clothes after all. He would bring them down to Steve's floor so the two didn't have to worry about such mundane things. 

Tony held it together until the very last box. Dum-E hadn't closed it properly and when he picked it up a bunch of brushes, combs and dog toys fell out and scattered across the floor. For a few seconds Tony didn't move, didn't breath, didn't even blink and in the next, he keeled over, all floodgates had opened, he felt like someone had ripped out his heart with an icy hand as he thought of all the things he would never again do with Furball. Never pet him, never brush him, never run his hand through the silky smooth fur, never play with the tuft of hair on the tip of his ears. Never again feel the warm and soft body press against him when he slept. 

These were all things Steve now got to do. Not Tony.

He didn't know how long he had been lying on the floor in a fetal position, clutching Furball's favorite brush against his chest. Tony wished the vampire legends were true and he could just disappear into a puff of smoke and never return, but he never had that kind of luck. In the end, he made it into his bed with JARVIS guiding him and Dum-E 'biting' his ankles. 

He took the brush with him. Bucky probably wouldn't notice it was gone, but it still had some of his fur stuck in it.


	29. Chapter 29

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I acknowledge that the cliffhanger in the last chapter was horrible, so I hurried and finished the next chapter. XD Enjoy!

Tony's rest was anything but relaxing. He had calmed down somewhat after his break down and pulled himself together, wiped his tears away, berated himself for being so emotional and put the brush into a drawer in his dresser. 

He would get over it. He always did and he was used to being alone, wasn't he? He's been alone for years after all. No big deal. 

After taking a long hot shower and perfecting his long-neglected beard again Tony was ready to put on a mask of nonchalance and go out into the world and pretend like he wasn't bothered by the new developments. He liked Furball - no, Bucky. He liked him a lot and he was happy for him and if being with Steve was what helped Bucky the most then Tony would step back and let it happen. He would watch from the sidelines.

That was the plan anyway. He got as far as one step out of the door to his apartment when all went downhill and he fell flat on his face after tripping over something lying directly in front of his door. 

Already cursing the bots Tony didn't know if he should rub his wrist or his elbow first when he noticed the cause of his fall.

"Furball? I mean.. Bucky."

Bucky was curled up in front of his door and in his human form too. He had his knees tugged close to his stomach and his head was resting on his elbow, not the most comfortable position but he had just managed to squish himself into the slight indent between the two sides of the doorframe so his back was flat against the door. He had dark circles under his eyes unsurprisingly considering his sleeping position and his hair was unkempt, he was still wearing the same clothes from before. 

Tony rearranged his limbs and scooted closer. Bucky's ears were flat against his head but he was awake - no doubt from the kick to his back - and was peering at Tony through his hair, holding incredibly still. Tony had no idea what was going on, of all the things he had expected to happen, this was not one of them. It reminded him so much of the time Furball had shifted and wanted to sleep in front of Tony's bedroom because he didn't want to be alone. That night had turned out to be one of the best in Tony's recent memories if it hadn't been for HYDRA attacking them in the morning. He wanted to tell Furball off for sleeping on the floor when there were so many beds and couches in the tower. Tony had vowed himself to never again let the werewolf sleep on the ground and yet it had happened again. Furball deserved so much better and Tony felt awful for letting it happen again, but there was also a spark of hope, had the werewolf come back for the same reason? Maybe something had happened between the two friends that had made him come back to Tony. 

Tony shook his head. He shouldn't assume and yet he so badly wanted to tell Furball he could come sleep with him again, but instead, he said:

"Bucky, what are you doing here? Why aren't you with Steve?" It had been several hours since Tony had left them alone in the living room, Tony didn't exactly know how long, between his breakdown and the consequent post-breakdown sleep that had been anything but restful it had to have been some time. It was dark outside now after all.

Bucky curled up a little tighter. "Don't." 

"Don't what? Why are you here, Bucky?" 

"Don't call me that....please?" He sounded so timid, so vulnerable, and Tony's mask started to slip.

"Call you what? Bucky?"

Bucky nodded, tugging his face against his chest. 

"But... that's your name. You're Bucky." Tony settled down next to him, his was aching to run his fingers through Furball's hair, untangling the silky strands. He wanted to push them back to see those stormy grey eyes again. He shook his head. Furball was Bucky now.

"I'm not. I don't remember. I don't remember anything. Steve was talking so much about... before, but I don't remember any of it." 

Now a dark lump of guilt was forming in Tony's stomach, maybe he shouldn't have left them alone, he should have known it was too much for Bucky, it was going too fast. "It's going to take time, you're going to be able to remember eventually, Bucky." He tried to appease the werewolf and finally dared to touch him, lightly putting his hand on the other man's back but Bucky jerked away.

"Don't!" Bucky suddenly sat up and scooted backwards putting a couple of feet of distance between them. "I'm not Bucky. Why are you doing this to me?" He asked accusingly. Bucky looked up and caught Tony's eyes, his voice was trembling but his gaze was steady.

"Do what to you?" Tony what at a loss, everything was spiraling out of control. Nothing was like it was supposed to be. Wasn't Bucky happy being with Steve? He had been so happy earlier.

"You put the stuff you got for me into Steve's place. You keep calling me Bucky." Bucky got louder with every word, tears were spilling out of his eyes and he was wiping his face with the sleeve of his hoodie. Tony wanted nothing more than to hold him, wrap his arms around him and tell him he would always be Furball to him, but Furball didn't want to be touched right now, that much was clear and before Tony could get a word in and try to explain his actions that had caused the werewolf to be so upset despite his best intentions. A loud voice made both of them turn down the hallway. 

"Bucky!!" Steve came running, out of breath and in his usual sleeping attire. He barely skitted to a halt a few meters away from them. "There you are! I was so worried! You just disappeared." He knelt down next to Bucky and reached out. "Are you alright?" 

To everyone's surprise, Bucky jerked away, with panic in his eyes he looked at Tony almost pleadingly and then he scrambled away, trying to get to his feet. Steve tried to hold onto him, Tony wasn't fast enough to tell him to let the werewolf alone. In this confused state, it was best not to push him, but the sound of fabric ripping confirmed Tony's suspicion of what was going to happen next and a few seconds later Furball had shifted to his wolf form and tackled Steve to the side trying to escape. Unfortunately, in his panic Furball had chosen the wrong way and came to a halt only a few seconds later, effectively cornering himself at the end of the hallway with Steve and Tony between him and his potential freedom. 

Steve staggered back until his back hit the wall, his eyes wide and fixated on his now werewolf-friend. The werewolf was crouching low and bared his teeth, his ears were laid back and he was clearly afraid. He werewolf growled lowly, Tony didn't think Furball would attack them, but he clearly didn't like being trapped in the corner. Tony did the smart thing and pressed himself against the other wall, opening up a path for him. 

Furball looked from Tony to Steve and after a few tense seconds, he stepped forward carefully, testing out his escape route. Tony was still confused as to why Furball was so upset that shifting had been his only way to cope but he would give him the time he needed and he hoped Steve would see it as well. 

The Captain, however, hadn't gotten the memo to not trap a frightened animal in a corner even if they happened to be your long lost friend and he stepped forward and reached out. "Bucky... Calm down." His voice was shaking and a cursory glance from Tony revealed that Steve wasn't holding up too well either. His stretched out hand was trembling and he held onto the wall with the other looking like he was about to keel over. 

"Let him through, Steve!" Tony shouted before Furball barked loudly and Steve complied, falling against the wall and sliding to the ground just as the werewolf bolted past them.

"JARVIS, track him, open the doors for him, let him hide wherever he wants, but don't let him out of the tower." 

"Of course, Sir." The AI responded courtly and Tony hoped Furball wasn't going to try to break down the doors that led outside. Tony didn't doubt if Furball really wanted to run away he would find a way but if JARVIS gave him an easier route maybe they could avoid that. Then after a second Tony deflated and joined Steve on the floor.

"What the fuck just happened?" Steve asked, he had wrapped his arms around himself and was shaking.

"I was just about to ask the same. What happened between you two?"

Steve looked up, confused. "Nothing? We were talking for a while and then called it a night. I thought... I thought everything was going so good, but I just noticed he wasn't in the guestroom and I went looking for him...what did you do?"

Tony frowned. "I didn't do anything! I found him in front of my door, sleeping on the floor." 

They both fell silent, each occupied with their own thoughts. It was Steve who spoke first after a long moment. 

"It's only been two years for me. Since I lost him, you know. I have such vivid memories of him, I thought... I thought we could go back to how it was before. I know you said he doesn't remember but I guess I just didn't want to believe it. Didn't want to see that things are different, that he's different." 

"He doesn't want to be called Bucky," Tony said and Steve nodded sorrowfully. "He needs more time."

"Are we... Should we look for him, Tony?" Steve sounded scared and Tony looked up at his friend. "I'm... I'm not sure I can. Not when he is like...that." 

"When he's shifted?" Tony asked and Steve nodded, hanging his head in shame. 

"I'm sorry. Until the other day, I never told anybody about what I saw the day they killed Bucky. Or took him, I guess. I always tried to hide it but seeing a big black wolf...I just freeze, I can't breathe. It should have stopped now that I know. It's Bucky for fuck's sake!" Steve broke down, hiding his face in his hands as sobs wracked his body. Tony scooted over and put a hand on his friend's back.

"It's okay, Steve," he mumbled softly, stroking up and down Steve's back. It wasn't really, Tony knew a trauma when he saw one, he had enough experience with them after all, but he wished someone had been there to tell him it was okay when he had been triggered and had a panic attack or woke up from a nightmare screaming.

He realized now that this wasn't a battle between Steve and Bucky or Furball and him, and most of all it hadn't been his decision to make, pulling away from Furball, isolating himself and thinking it was for the best had caused more harm than good. Furball was his friend and he shouldn't have pushed him away. It was clear to him now how it must have looked like Tony had abandoned the werewolf.

"I'll look for him, Steve, JARVIS knows where he is, right?" Tony patted Steve's back.

"Of course, Sir. I have tracked Mr. Furball to a bathroom in one of the empty apartments on floor 87. He is uninjured and appears to have calmed down." JARVIS supplied ever so helpfully.

"Thanks, J." Tony got up and straightened himself, he felt his joints popping painfully, he was definitely getting too old to have a heartfelt conversation on the cold hard ground. Next time he would insist on at least move to the couch before having an important talk like this. He held out his hand and Steve took it and pulled himself up. 

"Maybe you can get him some clothes for when he shifts back," Tony suggested and Steve looked grateful for the suggestion to help in a small way. 

"I'll do that." 

Tony turned to leave and head to the elevator when Steve caught his elbow. "Tony?"

"Mhm?" Tony cocked his head confused, Steve's eyes were still wet from crying but he looked determined. 

"Thank you. For everything. You saved him." 

Tony didn't know what to say but he didn't need to because the next thing he knew he was being pulled into a rib-crushing hug by Steve. It only lasted a moment before Steve released him and stepped back, rubbing the back of his neck. "Sorry," the Captain mumbled. "Go check on him now." 

And Tony gladly did, jogging to the elevator, feeling like everything could turn out alright.


	30. Chapter 30

It didn't surprise Tony to find Furball curled up in the shower again. He was once again a black ball of fluff with no distinct beginning or end. Tony was sure the werewolf already heard him coming but he trod carefully and knocked softly on the open door before entering.

"Furball? Fluffy baby, hey, can I come in? Growl at me if you want to be alone, but I just want to see if you are okay. I'm not mad." Tony waited for a few seconds and when the black blob in the shower didn't react he stepped forward and knelt next to Furball. He ran his hand through the soft fur mainly to comfort the werewolf but also to figure out where his head was. After a moment of fruitless search, Tony thought he felt an ear and started to scratch it.

Suddenly the blob of fur moved and a head appeared from the depth with two grey eyes looking up at Tony.

"There you are. Hey. Everything's alright, Furball." Tony used the name deliberately and hoped it would calm the werewolf down. Furball had been extremely upset when he had run away and the name had certainly been one trigger for that. A soft thudding suddenly came from the other side of the shower, Furball was wagging his tail!

Tony smiled and used his other hand as well to cradle the werewolf's head. "You're a good boy, you still like me, huh? I'm sorry for upsetting you. I didn't want to push you away, I thought you were going to be happier with Steve. I was wrong. You can stay wherever you want, with me, with Steve, with both. We'll make it work, alright?" Tony touched his forehead to Furball's and suddenly he had a wet tongue on his face. Furball was sitting up, struggling to get his limbs back under him. The metal leg made a screaking sound when he dragged it over the ceramic surface. His tail was now wagging freely and he stepped out of the shower, right onto Tony, who fell back as Furball licked all over his face and neck.

Tony had trouble catching his breath in between licks, Furball was also pawing at him with his right front leg and made content sounds in the back of his throat.

"Oh, you giant bundle of love. I love you too!" Tony laughed and tried to get a hold of the wriggling werewolf, wrapping his arms around Furball. "What do you say about going back to Steve? He's worried too."

Furball woofed at him once then continued the assault on Tony's face with his slobby tongue.

"Alright, alright, that was a 'yes, but not now?'" Tony resigned himself to having to take an extra long shower later and scratched Furball's side, laughing while the other showered him with love. "You gotta shift back though, Steve's a bit scared of big black wolves."

That got Furball to stop and tilt his head, drool was dripping from his fangs only inches from Tony's face. With any other werewolf, this would be a dangerous situation but it had never occurred to Tony that he was in any danger, even with a giant werewolf sitting on top of him with bared teeth.

"I know, how dare he, you're just a big cuddle bug, but he's not afraid of you, he's just got some bad experience with other werewolves. You heard his story on the plane."

Furball closed his mouth and huffed, then flopped down on top of Tony who groaned under the sudden weight. Furball's belly was resting on Tony's legs and his head on Tony's chest. The agony didn't last long because the weight suddenly decreased and Tony could feel the fur under his hand disappear. Within a few seconds, Furball had shifted back to his human form, looking up at Tony through his long hair.

"I thought you wanted to get rid of me," Furball mumbled softly and the hurt was still audible in his voice. He didn't make any move to get up and off of Tony.

Tony wrapped his arms a little tighter around the werewolf and held him close. "I realize how it must have looked to you, I am sorry."

Furball rubbed his face against Tony's chest - still very much in his werewolf mannerism it seemed - and then a shiver ran down his body and Tony realized that the other was naked and even though Tony provided some insulation from the cold floor he was still very exposed.

"Let's get you wrapped up in something and go back upstairs. Steve is getting you some clothes and then we talk about everything?" Tony felt Furball nod against his chest and then ever so slowly pushed himself up. Tony followed suit and stood up, ruffling Furball's hair in the process. He grabbed a big soft shower towel for Furball and wrapped it around the still sitting man like a cape, then he grabbed a small towel and cleaned his face as good as possible.

"Come on, Steve's probably worrying circles on my carpet upstairs." Tony helped Furball up and completely wrapped the towel around him so he was bundled up tight, then gently stirred him out of the bathroom and towards the elevator on this floor.

Tony rubbed Furball's back on their way upstairs, providing some warmth and comfort.

As Tony expected Steve had been pacing and he only stopped when he heard the elevator door open and saw Tony and the shifted Furball enter. Tony was surprised to find Steve had brought all the boxes up that he had moved downstairs only hours earlier, but among the boxes of Furball's stuff, Tony also saw Steve's usual duffle bag.

"Are these the things for me?" Furball asked timidly and stepped forward to examine the boxes with wide eyes.

"I didn't know what you would want to wear so I got everything, Bu- Furball," Steve said, stumbling over the name but catching himself. "I hope that's alright."

Furball nodded and then without shame dropped the towel he had been holding with one hand and knelt down to examine the content of the boxes. He pulled out several shirts before he found a hoodie and pulled it on, then moved to another box and found some soft sweatpants and slipped them on. One of these days Tony would need to teach Furball about the concept of underwear but for now, this was fine.

While Furball was searching the boxes Tony moved next to Steve. "What's with the bag?" Tony nodded to bag sitting at Steve's feet and the Captain suddenly hunched in on himself.

"I thought... maybe I could stay on the couch when Buck- I mean Furball wants to stay with you. Only if you're alright with it of course. I just want to be close to him." Steve sounded incredibly small for a person of his stature.

"The hell you will stay on the couch," Tony said and Steve flinched away. "We got perfectly fine guest bedrooms around here. The fuck you want to sleep on the couch?" Tony punched Steve in the shoulder for good measure.

"I- ", Steve's eyes went wide and then looked to the side, embarrassed but smiling. "Of course."

"Hey Furball, what do you say? You want Steve to stay with us?" Tony was grinning, this was perfect. Furball could stay at the penthouse with both of them and hopefully, he wouldn't feel like he had to choose between one or the other.

Furball was sitting on the floor pulling on fluffy pink socks, he looked up when Tony asked him and tilted his head, perking up his ears. He looked from Tony to Steve and then back to Tony. "All three of us?"

"Yeah." Tony crouched next to Furball and ruffled his hair, Furball leaned into the touch and smiled.

"I'd like that, yeah."

Steve slowly stepped closer and crouched low, he hesitantly reached towards the werewolf. "Furball?"

Without hesitation, Furball shuffled closer and nuzzled the side of his face against the offered hand to Steve's surprise. Steve looked at Tony for help who had to grin at the Captain's helplessness. Furball's unabashed portray of affection completely overwhelmed him.

"Just give him a good scratch behind his ear, Steve. He loves that!" Tony demonstrated on Furball's ear. A little slower Steve followed suit and tentatively started scratching the other one. The werewolf closed his eyes in bliss and made a low noise in the back of his throat, he arched his back and, then suddenly his foot started twitching.

Tony and Steve both had to laugh and Furball flopped over and rolled onto his back, obviously not concerned that he was in his human form. He looked incredibly happy lying between the two men and being petted all over.

\----

Half an hour later they had moved to the couch with Furball squished comfortably between Tony and Steve. 

The werewolf had pulled up his legs and had wrapped his arms around them, Tony was slowly massaging the back of his neck and Steve was sitting cross-legged next to him with his hand on Furball's right arm. They had taken on the daunting task of clearing up some misunderstandings between them and first of all, Steve had to realize that Bucky was not who he used to be. Tony had to keep telling himself that just because Furball recognized Steve and remembered him to some degree didn't mean their relationship had to change. It was for Tony to come to terms with, he didn't know how hard it had to be for Furball who was torn between his once best friend and whatever Tony was to him.

"I don't remember much of you, Steve," Furball confessed quietly. "I know.... I know you!" He insisted. "But there are no memories. Just a feeling of familiarity. Mostly I remember your smell. When I smell it... I feel ... home. Does that make sense?" Furball looked up to Steve, hoping for understanding.

Steve swallowed hard and nodded. "It does, but then earlier, when I was asking you all these questions and you nodded... you...?"

Furball flinched and looked away. "I didn't want to disappoint you. I thought you would be mad if I said I didn't know what you were talking about."

Steve had lost all color in his face and stared at Furball in shock. Then suddenly his demeanor changed, his brows drew together and he clenched his jaw, and Tony recognized that face.

Steve looked like he was about to punch someone. "There's a still a gym downstairs." Tony provided helpfully and Steve nodded stiffly, then stormed off.

Tony wrapped his arms around Furball and pulled him closer. This was so messed up, what HYDRA had done to him was unbelievable. They had destroyed this man and had shown him nothing but pain and yet Furball was the sweetest person. Tony had to hold back tears.

"Is Steve mad at me?" Furball mumbled barely audible.

"No, cupcake, he's mad at the people who did this to you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're nearing the end...


End file.
